


when the painted glass shatters (espionage ain’t for everyone)

by LucyInTheSky (WishingTree)



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, F/F, Gen, am i doing it anyway? hells yes, did anyone ask for this? no
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-27 22:17:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12591728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishingTree/pseuds/LucyInTheSky
Summary: As the best spy of her generation, Trini’s been assigned a joke of a mission: Be ready to protect something in a town called Angel Grove. She doesn’t even know what it is, nothing’s happening, it’s boring, and she has to deal with Zack Taylor as her partner.Then three teenagers break into a museum, and then she’s assigned to covertly protect one Kimberly Hart, and then she isn’t quite so bored anymore.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title partially from 'The Little Things That Give You Away' by U2.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So I had a really wacky dream that I can't actually remember but it somehow led me to wanting a spy au...... and then I couldn't find a spy au so I resorted to writing it myself. Hope you enjoy!

**Case file #186242** : Codename Sabertooth

 **Lead operative** : Trini Martinez

 **Operatives assigned** : Zack Taylor

 **Location** : Angel Grove, California, United States of America

 **Duration** : Undetermined

 

…

 

Trini weaved expertly through the people crowding the sidewalk, used to the bustle of the big city. It was noisy and busy, and she was just another nameless face passing through, exactly the way she wanted it.

Crossing the street, she finally reached her destination, the city’s library. It was an architectural marvel, and Trini absolutely loved every bit of it, inside and out. However, upon entering, she only spared a moment to glance at the stacks of books before heading for the farthest study room, tucked away in the corner. She didn’t look around, but she easily clocked the other occupants of this open area.

There were two girls tucked into the sofa, three frantic university students poring over a stack of heavy reference books, and a young boy sitting in an armchair, his legs dangling above the floor. Six others were spread around the tables, all absorbed in their respective books, and Trini nodded in satisfaction.

Verifying that nobody was paying any attention to her, she put her hand on the doorknob and waited for the slight vibration that meant the system had scanned her fingerprints and confirmed her identity. It buzzed, and she opened the door and stepped inside, gently closing it behind her.

Inside it appeared to be just an average study room, table in the middle and whiteboard on the wall, but Trini sidestepped a chair and moved towards the nondescript door set in the other side of the windowless room, glancing up to where she knew was a hidden surveillance camera.

She stopped in front of the door and reached out to tug on the top set of hinges, holding them down until a panel slid open next to the door. Leaning over and putting her face in front of it, she waited for the retinal scan to complete and then took a step back, holding her arms out to the side for the system to take a full biometric scan.

Finally, it let out a small beep before the door slid open soundlessly, and she grinned. She walked down the steps, the clanging of her footsteps on metal echoing ahead of her, and the lights flickered on as the motion detectors registered her presence.

She entered the giant room and headed straight for one of the cushy office chairs surrounding the conference table, dropping down and swinging herself in an idle circle. The tracker on her phone would have already alerted Alpha to her presence, and all she had to do was wait until he decided to start the briefing.

True to form, he didn’t make her wait long at all, and one of the computer monitors to her left flickered to life, shining blue-tinged light across the room.

“Hey Alpha,” Trini called out, and she straightened up, taking her elbow off the table.

“Agent Trini!”

The image of Alpha greeted her from the screen, a short man with a tablet in his hands leaning against a desk. Trini had met him a couple of times, but his position had him constantly moving around the world, checking in with other agents. She wasn’t actually sure what that position was, but he was the one she reported to.

“What’s the sitch?” Trini said, the corner of her mouth twitching as she tried to stop herself from either grinning or grimacing, she wasn’t sure which. She hadn’t been able to resist making the Kim Possible joke when she’d first started, and the habit of using the catchphrase had stuck, unfortunately. “Anything exciting?”

Alpha quirked an eyebrow and tapped on his tablet. “Got a call from Director Zordon. Are you ready?”

He waited for Trini to nod and then gestured for her to look to the side, at the main screen that took up to opposite wall.

Unlike Alpha, the director never revealed himself in person. To all the agents, Zordon was nothing but a pixelated face on a giant screen. Trini didn’t know why they bothered with the flimsy covering of disguise, since it was pretty obvious everyone knew what he looked like, but Alpha never mentioned it, and Trini followed his lead.

“Agent Martinez,” Director Zordon’s face greeted her, “Good morning.”

“Director,” she inclined her head, lacing her fingers together as she leaned forward, “New mission for me?”

He nodded, and she felt a thrill of excitement run through her. “You are being assigned to a town called Angel Grove.”

Trini blinked. “Angel Grove?”

“Your mother will inform you within the next couple of days that she’s gotten a promotion and you’ll be moving, to Angel Grove, California. The timing is perfect, as we would have needed to station someone there anyways, and this saves us the trouble of arranging it. 

“Your mission is this,” Zordon said, somehow knowing exactly how long he needed to pause for Alpha to get the correct images up on the screen. It was a map, pinpointing a tiny town Trini had never heard of, and she tilted her head to the side. “There is a valuable artifact hidden in Angel Grove. You must protect it, and if possible, retrieve it. However, intel doesn’t tell us where it is.”

“That’s… vague. Do I get a hint?” Trini drawled, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

Zordon ignored her, continuing his briefing. “Alpha will be there with you, and you’ve been assigned a partner for the duration of this assignment.”

At this, Trini’s eyebrows rose. She’d never been given a partner before.

“You’ll be stationed there until further notice, but keep your distance from the townspeople. Don’t do anything to make yourselves stand out. Fly under the radar until we call for you. You’re officially on reserve, Agent.”

Trini rolled her eyes. They were both fully aware she knew the drill, being the top agent currently active in her division. Blend in. Be painfully normal. Uninteresting. _Boring_. Know things about them, never let them know things about you. Standard procedure.

The agency had operatives stationed all over the world, on active duty or awaiting any potential mission assignments, and now it seemed Trini was going to be one of them.

“If we discover the location of the artifact, you retrieve it and await further instruction. That is all.”

Trini nodded as he disappeared, and she spun her chair back to face the monitor Alpha was on. “Got anything else for me?” she asked, determined to do this properly, no matter how little work it seemed to entail.

“All relevant files have been transferred to your phone,” Alpha shrugged, giving her an earnest smile like he knew what she was thinking. “It’ll be fun, don’t worry!”

She half smiled back and nodded, pushing away from the table and readying herself to leave. Apparently, she was going to have some packing to do.

 

 

~~~

 

 

Trini liked their new house in Angel Grove well enough, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t taking every opportunity she could to sneak out of it. They had officially finished moving in yesterday, and while she was glad that her brothers were so excited about it, she was slightly less enthused.

That morning, Trini snuck out of the house well before the sun was up, escaping the emptiness of her new room and expertly avoiding her parents. It was quiet outside, a change Trini had yet to get used to, and Trini tried to shake the feeling of unease, knowing she was just missing the sounds of the city. Moving through silent streets felt like a ghost town right now, and Trini quickened her step. She had scouted out the mine yesterday, spending a couple hours wandering through trees and over craggy rocks, and in the process had found what she suspected would be the perfect yoga spot. It was a bit of a climb to the flat plane of rock, but she didn’t mind.

When she finally reached it, the sky was just beginning to lighten. She looked out at the horizon, marveling at the view of the sunrise over the town. That was something that certainly didn’t happen in the city. She pulled her headphones on and took a deep breath, readying herself to begin her routine and losing herself in the calming motions. The sounds of the forest didn’t distract her, and she let herself smile, closing her eyes.

Her peace was undisturbed for half an hour, but then she felt a shift in the air.

There was someone lying on the abandoned train car on the cliff across from her, just far enough that he wasn’t within yelling distance. It was a boy who looked around Trini’s age, maybe slightly older. Trini tensed slightly but continued through her poses so as to not alert him that she was aware of his presence. He didn’t make any sudden movements either, but Trini knew he was watching her.

Eventually he swung himself off the train car and ambled away, out of her line of sight, and Trini watched him go, content to return to her perfect solitude.

Three notes sounded in her ears, underlaying her music and easy enough to dismiss if she weren’t trained to listen for it. It was the sound that alerted her when somebody from the agency was trying to contact her, and she pulled her phone out to pause her music, opening the secure communications line and slipping it back into her pocket.

“What’s up, Alpha?”

“Just checking in!” Alpha chirped cheerfully, “Everything went well yesterday? Adjusting okay?”

“Yup, all good. Took a tour of the town with the twins. This place seems… nice.”

“And that’s why you’re already hiding in the mine?”

“I’m not – hiding,” she objected, “I’m just… meditating.”

Alpha made a sound somewhere between dubious and amused, and Trini rolled her eyes good-naturedly before closing them and transitioning into her next pose. “Yes, yes, I hate people, you’ve said it before.”

“And I’m still right! Anyways, Trini, moving on,” Alpha continued brightly, “Remember, be at the meet-up for 6:30 sharp! You’re meeting your partner today, and getting the official mission briefing.”

Trini didn’t open her eyes, holding her pose. “Yes, Alpha, I know. I’ll be back in town in time, don’t worry about me.”

Alpha laughed and made an affirmative noise. “Alright, see you at the base!”

When she heard the click of the line closing, she exhaled and cracked her eyes open. The sun was now visible and the quiet of the woods was starting to recede, and checking her phone confirmed it.

It was time to go.

 

She ambled down the sidewalk, casually scanning the row of shops and businesses that lined the street for the address she had memorized. Angel Grove really did have that small town feel, and Trini felt a pang of wistfulness as she made her way past the family-owned ice cream shop, suddenly missing the big city more than she thought she would. She hadn’t been there very long, after all, and she shook herself out of it, continuing to count the addresses.

Two blocks later, it turned out the meet-up was at a Krispy Kreme, open but still deserted at this time of morning. Trini grinned up at the sign and pushed the door open, taking in the smell of the donuts and sugar. She certainly hadn’t been expecting this, but she was going to take full advantage of it.

She bought a glazed donut and surveyed her surroundings as she pulled out her phone to check the time. She still had ten minutes to find the entrance to the base, and she smiled as she took a bite of her donut. Nothing inside the Krispy Kreme indicated a hidden entrance to a secret base, and she couldn’t imagine the dead-eyed teenager standing behind the counter was an operative, so she took another bite and left, hearing the bell jingling merrily behind her.

She circled around to check it out and spotted a door, set into the side of the building. There was an ‘Employees Only’ sign on it, but it was also retrofitted with the agency’s ever-familiar biometric scanner, as well as subtly reinforced with some kind of armored plating. Trini knew it looked completely average to the untrained eye, and she smirked as she went to unlock it.

It opened with a hiss to reveal the top of a staircase. With one last glance around, she pulled the door shut and cautiously made her way down, considering the merits of always having an underground base.

The steps led to a large room with surprisingly high ceilings, giving it an airy feeling even though they were in a closed off room underground. There was a massive screen covering one wall, as well as a computer station with multiple monitors laid out. Off to the side was a hallway she knew would lead to the training rooms, different archives and arsenals, emergency bunks, as well as a kitchen and locker rooms. The massive table in the middle of the room had some kind of fancy-looking projector set into the middle of it, and the ring of chairs around it were perfectly arranged.

“Cool,” she breathed, taking it all in.

“Agent Trini,” Alpha greeted her cheerfully, getting up from the computer station, “Happy to see you made it. And right on time!”

As if that was the cue he had been waiting for, Zordon’s face appeared on the screen, and Trini was almost comforted by the fact that he looked exactly the same, shitty pixelated layer and all.

“Hello, Agent Martinez. I trust you found the base alright?”

“Yup, no problems here.”

Zordon nodded. “This will serve as your base of operations for the duration of your time here. Everything in it is at your disposal, and your partner’s.”

“Right,” Trini said, glancing around, “Are they here yet?”

“His name is Zack Taylor. Recently recruited, he’s lived here his entire life, so he should be able to help you get some insight on the town. He’ll be a valuable asset,” Zordon said.

Right on cue, Trini heard the door open again and a pair of footsteps on the stairs. She turned towards the entrance, and recognition bloomed on her face at the same time as it did on his. It was the guy from the train car.

“Hey, it’s you!” he said, wide grin spreading across his face.

She nodded silently as she looked him over, noting the unruly way his shirt was half-tucked in and the smattering of grease stains on his clothes. _Mechanic_ , she concluded. He must work at the garage. He had callouses on his hands and he was bouncing ever so slightly on his toes, telling Trini he wasn’t the type of person who was good at sitting still.

“Sup, Crazy Girl,” he nodded at her, and Trini rolled her eyes.

“You do know we’re in a meeting with the _director_ , right?” she said through gritted teeth, already annoyed.

“Right, right,” he nodded and turned to Zordon’s screen. “Agent Zack Taylor, reporting for duty, sir!” He clicked his heels together and snapped a salute, the infuriating grin never leaving his face.

“Good morning, Agent Taylor.” Zordon said, raising an eyebrow, “Please, both of you have a seat. Now, on to the mission briefing…”

He repeated the same ill-defined instructions as before, giving Trini no new information regarding whatever artifact they were supposed to be keeping an eye out for, and she puzzled over the ambiguity of it all. Angel Grove did seem to be a strange location to place two agents on reserve, but she wasn’t going to complain.

After Zordon finished speaking and signed off, Trini took her phone out to check the mission files she knew would have already been uploaded. However, before she could open any, Zack rose from his seat and wandered over to the computer station.

He whistled, surveying their surroundings with an impressed look on his face. “Check this out,” he said, hand already reaching out for the control panel, and Trini jumped to her feet.

“Wait, don’t – ”

He slapped his hand on a switch, and they both spun around when it activated another door behind them. Trini followed Zack when he bounded over, immeasurably glad the button hadn’t activated some kind of defensive measure, or self-destruct. Though Trini knew the self-destruct was better hidden than that, not just out in the open, knowing it existed at all made her annoyance at Zack grow.

Reaching the door, he stuck his head inside. “Cool, a garage,” he nodded, stepping back to let her see. It was indeed a large empty garage, big enough to hold at least four cars, and Trini wondered how big this base was. It had to stretch out beyond the limits of the Krispy Kreme, maybe taking up the underground beneath the whole block.

Taking one last look around, Zack moved to the panel next to the door and started tapping at the screen. “I wonder where the entrance is?” he mused, closing the door.

“It’s the service entrance of the record store down the street,” Alpha told them, strolling over with his tablet tucked under his arm, “Your phones can open the doors from outside should the need arise. Now, agents, I suggest you acquaint yourselves with the base, and with each other. Seems like we’ll all be here together for a while.” He gave them a smile before walking off, head already bent over his tablet, and Trini reluctantly rounded on Zack.

He had his hands clasped behind his back as he beamed at her. “So,” he started, wiggling his eyebrows at her, “How’s it going?”

“No,” she said flatly, “No, we aren’t doing that.” She glared at him, but he was unbothered as he held up his hands and took a step back. “We have a job to do.”

“I know,” he said calmly, giving her an easy smile, “I got your back, Crazy Girl, believe it or not. That’s what partners are for.” He offered her his hand. “So. Yeah. Partners?”

Trini eyed him for a moment before reaching out to shake his hand. “Partners,” she said firmly.

 

 

~~~

 

 

They spent the next year without any developments in the case, long enough that Trini started to feel like she really was just a normal student going to high school. She hovered in the backs of classrooms, didn’t get involved in any school activities that required social interaction, and kept tabs on the goings on of the town.

Trini and Zack also got much closer than she ever would have guessed, enough that he made her list of people she would grudgingly help move a body for. As surprising as it was, he became her closest friend. Not that she had many for him to compete with. Or any at all.

It was a fact. She’d accepted it.

With nothing else to do, they had taken to sparring together, both in the base’s training room and out in the mine. It was good practice, and Trini wasn’t going to lie about enjoying being able to kick his ass once in a while.

Zack relied almost entirely on his strength in a fight, and still had a tendency to showboat, no matter how many times Trini tried to explain to him that it was a waste of energy. Still, he was a well-matched opponent, and Trini was glad to have him, though she would never admit it.

That afternoon found them sparring in the mine. Trini’s back hit a tree with enough force to knock the air out of her lungs, but she pushed past the burning in her chest and lunged sideways to bring her knee up into Zack’s stomach as he reached for her again. He doubled over, giving her the perfect opportunity sweep his feet off the ground and lay him out.

Zack groaned as he laid on the ground, blinking dust out of his eyes. “Not again,” he groaned, “You always do that.” He sat up and leaned back on his arms, letting his head drop back. “Best four out of seven!” he suggested, raising his eyebrows and gamely lifting his fists, jabbing at her playfully before accepting her help to stand.

Trini laughed, readying herself, but before she could answer they were interrupted by the three-tone signal sounding in both their earpieces.

“Message from Alpha,” Zack commented, and Trini dropped her hands immediately, tilting her head in confusion.

“That’s weird, check-in’s not for two days.”

Trini’s phone was closer, so she picked it up and put it on speaker, answering the call. “Alpha? What’s up?”

“Report to base immediately.”

Alpha’s voice was clouded with an urgency Trini hadn’t heard in years, and she shared one worried glance with Zack before they scrambled into motion.

It looked like their time on reserve had finally come to an end.

 

 

 

“Three teenagers have stumbled across the artifact we’ve been searching for,” Alpha spoke without preamble as soon as they charged their way down the stairs and into the base, both breathing heavily. Zordon was on the screen, and Trini and Zack both hurried their way to the conference table, dropping into seats and listening intently. “Director?”

“A few days ago, a group of miners unearthed this box, buried deep within the mountain.” Zordon nodded at Alpha, and Alpha tapped at his tablet. Trini’s eyes widened when a beam of light shot out of the middle of the table, projecting a hologram in the air in front of their faces.

The hologram spun slowly in place, showing a square box with weird swirling designs covering it, and Trini squinted at it, not recognizing anything.

“It was taken to the museum in town, and we have set up alarm systems around the museum to alert us to the presence of outsiders poking around. Given the average time of 26 days taken to begin processing new acquisitions, the plan was for you to be sent in next week.”

“And you said three people got to it first?” Zack asked, eyes focused on the hologram.

“Jason Scott, Billy Cranston, and Kimberly Hart,” Alpha recited as he sent three pictures up on the monitors. They were school photos of three teenagers, all students at Angel Grove High School, and Trini recognized them easily.

“They broke into the museum last night,” Alpha informed them, and Zordon looked at Zack before locking his gaze with Trini.

“You are to keep tabs on them. Watch them. They did not uncover the secret, but they came very close, even though they remain unaware. We have to be ready if they intend to try something.”

“What?” she said incredulously, glancing at Zack for support. “Seriously? Those three?” She waved a hand at the pictures. “Okay, Billy Cranston’s usually pretty quiet, but these two? The quarterback and the cheerleader? This one – ” she pointed empathetically at Jason Scott’s picture, “This one stole a cow!”

“Regardless of that, Agent Martinez, there is the possibility of them being a threat, and this must be treated as such.”

Trini swallowed her sigh and nodded dutifully. “What about retrieval of the artifact?”

“Confirm that these three teenagers are indeed harmless, and then we will discuss the artifact. Good luck, agents,” he said with finality, and then the screened blinked off once more.

Trini sank back in her chair, running her hands through her hair and wishing she had her beanie. “What were they even doing together?” she muttered to herself, “They don’t exactly run in the same circles.”

“You know you talk like a forty-year-old daycare monitor sometimes?”

“Shut the hell up.”

Zack only laughed at her, and she furrowed her brow as she tried to figure out why she seemed to be so resistant to this assignment. It was an easy mission in all respects, and she should be jumping at the chance to actually do something after a year of relative boredom and inactivity.

“Come on, dude,” Zack clapped her on the shoulder, “You think of one strategy to get close to them, I think of another, and loser buys donuts.”

Trini sighed but agreed, not looking forward to approaching them tomorrow at school.

“Alright,” she mumbled, planting her hands on the armrests and pushing herself to her feet, “I’m all gross from the mine, I’m gonna take a shower.” She looked him over quickly, noting his dirt streaked face and sweaty hair. “You should probably consider it too.”

Zack laughed. “Good call.”

They headed towards the training room and then split up to head to their respective showers, Trini eager to get into fresh clothes.

After quickly showering and dressing, Trini moved to the locker room, using a towel to wring out her hair as she went to retrieve her backpack. She opened her locker and tossed the towel towards the hamper on the wall, shaking out her hair and reaching inside.

Suddenly registering movement behind her, Trini dropped on instinct and spun around, sweeping her leg out to knock the feet out from under the person trying to sneak up on her. It was over in a flash, and then Zack was groaning from his position flat on his back.

She stood sheepishly and stuck out her hand to help him up, “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“All good,” Zack groaned, letting her haul him to his feet, “Should have known better. Won’t make that mistake again.” He stretched his neck out, rotating at the waist as Trini turned to take her bag out of her still open locker, setting it on the bench behind her, and then reached in again to grab her jacket.

“I’m going to go check out the museum, you want to come?” Trini asked as she pulled her bomber jacket on, tugging her hair out of the collar.

Zack stopped from where he was adjusting his own jacket. “The museum? Why?”

“I want to see what this artifact is,” Trini shrugged.

“We’re supposed to be covering Jason, Billy, and Kimberly. Security and surveillance of the artifacts isn’t us.”

Trini only raised an eyebrow, pointedly buckling up the loose straps of her bag, and Zack grinned.

“And you just don’t give a shit, do you?” he mused, not really a question, and she only smirked back. Looked like their boring day was going to end with them breaking into a museum. 

 

Across town, what they weren’t aware of was that three other people were about to do the exact same thing.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man that was too much exposition. Anyways, it’s not a spy story without a museum heist I guess!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God I underestimated how much setup this story would take to get to the good parts I actually want to write.

“I don’t suppose you brought like, a grappling hook or something cool like that? Something that gives us an excuse to lower ourselves in from a skylight while dramatic music plays in the background?” Zack whispered as they crouched behind a bush lining the path that lead to one of the museum side entrances.

“We aren’t actually here to steal anything, idiot, and it’ll be easy to get through the doors without getting caught.”

Zack sighed dramatically. “Lame.”

“Come on,” Trini whispered, knocking the back of her hand against his arm and rising to her feet.

It was an easy matter to disable the alarm system and get through the side entrance, skirting around the edges of the large showroom they found themselves in. As they made their way through the museum, Trini was grateful that Zack was behaving himself for once, moving silently through the rooms after her.

Sensing a shift in motion up ahead and hearing the quiet scuff of shoes on the floor, Trini held out her arm to stop Zack from walking into the path of a bored looking security guard, and he gave her an impressed look.

“Did you look into all of their security protocols or something?” he whispered once they were alone again, “I thought this was a spontaneous decision.”

“It was,” she whispered back, preoccupied with counting the seconds the camera across from them took to complete a full sweep. “But you’re the one that jumps into things without being prepared, not me. I cased this place ages ago.”

“You cased the museum in case we ever had to break in? What, just for fun?”

Trini shot him a look before waving him forward and darting around the corner, headed straight for the basement door that would lead them to the storage area where the museum kept the new and uncatalogued arrivals. It was an easy matter to pick the locks, and then Trini nudged the door open cautiously, waiting a second before sticking her head in.

It was clear, and they both crept down the stairs into a massive space cluttered with shelves and tables. Sharing a look and then spreading out, they started to comb the room, each keeping an eye out for any signs of security measures.

Thy worked in silence until Zack made a quiet sound. “Hey,” he whispered, waving her over to a table in the middle of the room.

There was a miscellaneous bunch of objects scattered across the surface of the it, all with tags sticking off of them, and Trini was in the process of scrutinizing them when Zack nudged her in the arm and pointed at the shelf set next to the table.

“That box,” he whispered, indicating a cardboard box sitting on the top shelf, “Read the label, that might be it.”

It had the right date along with _Found in abandoned mine_ messily scrawled on the side, and Trini perked up when she saw it. A quick glance at the floor confirmed that the shelf was bolted down, and Trini gave a satisfied nod.

She carefully put her foot on the table, taking care not to make contact with anything on it, and glanced up again. Leveraging herself off, she grabbed the top of the shelf with both hands and easily pulled herself up, climbing on top of it and stabilizing herself in a crouch.

Just as she leaned over the edge to peer into the boxes lined up on the top shelf, Trini heard movement around the corner and froze, one hand extended comically. She hastily withdrew and eased herself down onto her stomach, keeping her breathing quiet and even as she waved at Zack to get out of sight. He scampered around the corner of the shelf opposite of her and pressed his back against it, meeting her eyes and giving her a small nod.

They waited with bated breath as the footsteps approached, and Trini furrowed her brow when she realized they were too loud and unsteady to be either security or a thief. At least, not a good thief. Museum personnel weren’t supposed to be here this late, but maybe someone had decided to put in some overtime?

Trini stayed still as she ran the possibilities through her head, and then she screwed up her face in confusion when Jason Scott and Billy Cranston came hurrying around the corner, shoulders hunched and whispering urgently. They stuck to the more shadowy side of the room, but she recognized them easily.

“Dude, we just _broke into the museum_. Again! We can’t be here!” Jason was looking around frantically, one hand held out towards Billy, but Billy only shook his head distractedly.

“I just want to check out whatever they found! I heard it was something weird, and I told you, right? Me and my dad always used to dig up in the mine, and…”

There was another set of rapid footsteps approaching, and Trini ducked lower. The two boys didn’t seem to hear it, continuing their whispered conversation, but Trini moved her gaze to the direction they were coming from.

Kimberly Hart appeared around the corner, face concerned but with slightly too much excitement shining in her eyes to be comforting, and Trini filed that observation away for later. Apparently the cheerleader was either reckless or a troublemaker, and neither of those things spelled good news for Trini. Unpredictable targets were difficult targets.

Jason whirled around in surprise when he noticed her, but Billy only glanced once over his shoulder and waved skittishly, returning his attention to the shelves around them.

“Uh, Kimberly? W–what are you doing here?”

Kimberly rolled her eyes. “You were talking to me and then all of a sudden charged off towards the museum, of course I followed you! I’m impulsive like that,” she shrugged, unconcerned, “Now what are you two _doing_? Wasn’t almost getting caught yesterday enough for you?”

“I was – Billy wanted to… I don’t know,” Jason shrugged helplessly, and Kimberly hid a snort in her hand.

“Why do you look so nervous, Scott? Isn’t breaking and entering sort of your thing?”

“Well, I got busted for that once already,” he huffed, “Not looking for a repeat, thank you very much.”

Kimberly grinned crookedly, sweeping her hand in a careless gesture. “It’s fun though, right? So, Billy, what are we looking for?”

“I swear, it’s like the two of you don’t even realize how not allowed this is,” Jason muttered.

Billy kept scanning the shelves, and the other two followed after him, finally stepping out of the dim lighting. That had the advantage of giving Trini a chance to properly look them over while unfortunately bringing them closer to her hiding spot, and Zack’s. Luckily, they were all absorbed in helping Billy with whatever he was looking for, and Trini took the chance to eye them critically.

Billy Cranston, although taller than her and quick to move, had a gentle look in his eyes. Unless he was cornered, she didn’t foresee him being much of a threat. Jason Scott was still built like the football player he used to be, and Trini knew he had been in at least a couple fights at school. Trini figured in brute strength they were maybe about equal, and she had plenty of training against opponents bigger than her. He also had a knee brace on, which she could use to her advantage if push came to shove. While his threat level was higher than Billy’s, it wasn’t enough to worry her.

Her gaze shifted to Kimberly Hart, and that was when her breath caught. Kimberly was devastatingly attractive, intense and striking, and Trini knew her lean form was deceptive, hiding strength cultivated from years of gymnastics and cheerleading. Trini didn’t like the way her stomach flipped whenever she saw her, and it was probably the same self-preservation skills that yelled at her to get away whenever there was the chance of her going stupid over a pretty girl.

Her eyes were sharp, her smile coy, and Trini shuddered. Yes, Kimberly Hart was definitely the biggest threat among them.

They were now standing right in front of the shelf Trini was lying on, almost directly underneath her, and Trini snapped her gaze to Zack, knowing that if they took a couple steps to the left they’d see him.

“They dug something up at the mine,” Billy told the Kimberly distractedly, busy poking through some boxes. “Me and my dad used to dig up there all the time. I want to see if they found something important.” He swung his backpack down his arm and opened it, setting things on the shelf as he dug through it. Making a thoughtful noise, he picked something up and started to walk away. They drifted towards the other side of the room, and Trini sighed in relief.

“That’s – that’s not an explanation!” Kimberly called after them in a hushed whisper as they moved, and Trini stifled a laugh.

Now that the immediate threat of them being discovered was gone, Trini figured they could just wait them out. But true to his nature of aggravating her, Zack apparently had a different idea.

Zack tilted his head at her, and she narrowed her eyes warningly. His lips curled up in an infuriatingly slow smirk, and Trini knew what he was going to do even before he held both his hands up in a shrug and pushed away from his hiding place tucked against the shelf. Trini gritted her teeth and leaned forward, cursing him out in her mind as he stuck his hands in his pockets and strolled out into the open, right in front of the other three.

They all jumped back, Jason stumbling with his arms spread in some half-ditch attempt to shield the other two, while Kimberly raised her fists and Billy mostly just flailed.

“What the hell!”

“Hey,” Zack offered casually, giving them a short wave. They all stared at him in stunned silence, and Zack glanced around. “Nice to meet you too?”

“Wha – You’re Zack, right?” Kimberly said in a careful voice, slowly lowering her hands.

Zack gave her a measured look before nodding. “Yup,” he tilted his head back and looked around, “Nice to know my reputation precedes me.”

Jason slowly withdrew his arms, posture still wary as he straightened. “You still go to Angel Grove?”

Zack laughed once, raising an eyebrow at him. “Sometimes! So,” he took his hands out of his pockets and held them out to the side, “Find anything interesting?”

“Find anything – we’re not here to _rob_ the place,” Jason hissed.

“Yeah,” Billy chimed in, “We’re just looking for something from the mine. Me and my dad used to dig up there, and – ”

Their voices had been steadily rising until they were almost at a normal speaking volume, and Trini pressed her lips together despairingly before making her decision, knowing she had to intervene.

“Hey!” she whisper yelled to get their attention, frowning disapprovingly down at Zack. He only grinned back at her even though he knew full well that she didn’t like the method he had chosen to handle this. “You guys looking to get busted or something? This place isn’t exactly open to the public.”

They all started in surprise, and Zack adopted an exaggerated look of astonishment. “Oh, so you mean we shouldn’t be crawling around on top of storage shelves?”

“We shouldn’t be wandering around the museum either then, huh? I can see you too, you know.”

“What the hell are you doing up there!?” Jason had a shocked expression on his face, mirrored on Billy’s, but Kimberly’s face was hidden in the shadows again.

“Uh – guys?” Trini looked down to see Billy backing away from her with a worried expression on his face. “You should probably – um, girl hiding on top of the shelf? You should probably get down, I may have accidentally armed a very small explosive, and – ”

At the word ‘explosive’, Trini’s eyes widened, but she registered the whirring a split second too late.

The shelf underneath her was rocked by some kind of blast, collapsing under her body and pitching her forward into open space, and she tumbled head over heels until she hit the ground with a thump, yells all around her as the impact jarred her bones.

Lying flat on her back, she groaned and cautiously uncovered her head, trying to blink through the haze of dust in the air. So it looked like she might have to rethink her initial threat assessment of Billy Cranston, because casual explosions tended to increase that level.

Propping herself up and bringing a hand to her head, she squinted. Apparently the others had all hit the ground with her, and she heard them stirring. Not detecting any other threats, she coughed and closed her eyes again, waving her hand slowly through the air in a vain attempt to try and clear it.

“Are you okay?”

There were concerned hands patting at her arm, and Trini opened her eyes to see Kimberly leaning over her. She looked a little disheveled but otherwise unharmed, wide eyes scanning Trini worriedly.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” she said dazedly, struggling to sit up properly. Kimberly’s hands were gentle as she tried to help her to her feet, and Trini attributed the way her stomach was fluttering to the fall.

“Woah, check it out,” Billy said in a hushed voice, getting quickly to his feet.

More than a few boxes had been knocked loose in the blast, but there was one lying on its side right in front of them, spilling it’s contents out in the middle of their loose circle. It was crusted with dirt, but Trini could make out the strange spirals patterning it. If that wasn’t enough of a giveaway, something inside of her told her that this was what they had been looking for, and she instinctively leaned closer to examine it, slapping Zack’s hand away when he reached out to poke at it.

“What is it?”

It was a chunk of what looked like glass, but not any type of glass Trini had ever seen. Dark and glittering, it reminded Trini of outer space, and she regarded it carefully.

Zack’s hand darted out again, and this time Trini wasn’t fast enough to stop him from touching whatever it was. It didn’t look like it was that fragile, but it cracked right down the middle at the contact to reveal five glittering coins.

They spilled out onto the ground in front of them, and the air almost seemed to hum around them. Driven by something she couldn’t describe, Trini reached out to pick up the yellow one, the coin closest to her. She examined it as if in a daze and noted the others all doing the same with the other coins, all different colors. It felt like it was thrumming, almost like it had been waiting for exactly this to happen.

The distant ringing of alarm bells reached her ears, and she snapped back to awareness, swearing under her breath.

There was a moment of silence, and then everybody leaped into action. They scattered, Jason and Billy scrambling back the way they had come, and Trini spun around to head in the direction of the door her and Zack had come in by. Zack had already disappeared, so she took off on her own, skidding around tables and shelves, and she startled when Kimberly suddenly appeared next to her, cursing herself again for letting her catch her off guard. It was concerning how many times this was starting to happen to her.

“This way!” Kimberly said, already running as she gestured for Trini to follow her. They raced through the building, Trini mentally mapping out their position relative to the exits.

“There’s some stairs here,” Kimberly said breathlessly, making a path for them, but Trini knew they would lead them into the center of the museum, where they would most definitely be caught.

“Wait!” Trini reached out and grabbed Kimberly’s wrist, pulling her away from the stairs and swinging her around to run down the next hallway, through cabinets and stacks of boxes. “There’s an emergency exit this way.”

They ran, Trini staying half a step behind Kimberly, and the path was clear until they turned a corner to be faced with a maze of tables spread haphazardly around.

Kimberly yelped and jumped around the one directly in her path, going too fast to stop, and Trini slid smoothly under the table, ducking her head and getting back to her feet just in time to vault over another cabinet before her feet hit the floor again.

“There,” she breathed, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Kimberly was still with her before she slammed the door open and sprinted up the flight of stairs, only slowing at the top to make sure she wasn’t about to run into the path of some guards. Kimberly bumped into her back, and Trini turned with a finger against her lips. “Let’s go,” she whispered, and Kimberly nodded, hurrying forward.

They crept along, moving as quickly as they dared, and Kimberly’s head swiveled around, obviously on the lookout for any guards. Trini’s movements were decidedly stealthier, steps near silent, but she didn’t bother chastising her.

They were in sight of the entrance, just across a wide lobby, when Trini’s ears caught the sound of heavy footsteps and rustling material.

“Wait,” she hissed, grabbing Kimberly’s wrist and pulling her back before she could charge out into the path of the searching security guards. The flashlight beams were sweeping the area in front of them, and Trini yanked Kimberly towards her.

Kimberly stumbled at the sudden change in direction, knocking into Trini where she was standing behind her, and Trini spun her around to cushion her momentum, wincing when Kimberly’s back hit the wall.

Trini instinctively wrapped her arms around her to keep her still before she could make any noise, pinning her against the wall and focusing on the sound of running footsteps and muffled voices coming through walkie-talkies. The seconds ticked away, the tension in Trini’s body mounting, until the guards finally moved on, calling to each other as they went to check the next room, and Trini felt Kimberly relax.

Satisfied that they were in the clear, Trini suddenly realized that they were pressed so closely together she could hear Kimberly’s shallow breathing next to her ear and froze. Kimberly’s gaze was locked on her, eyes glittering in the low light, and Trini swallowed, mouth suddenly very dry.

She slowly untangled her arms and backed away, grimacing. “…Sorry,” she offered awkwardly, not meeting Kimberly’s eyes as she spun on her heel and poked her head around the corner. “It’s clear, we gotta move.”

They scurried across the open space, and Trini was relieved that Kimberly was still following her without question. Easily slipping through the doors, they immediately hurried into the dark night, only the light of the distant streetlights disrupting it.

“Are you good to get home?” Trini whispered as loudly as she dared, watching the museum behind them for any signs of pursuit.

“Yeah,” Kimberly whispered back, glancing around skittishly, “Yeah, my car’s just over there.”

“Okay, go,” Trini shooed her away, “Go, go, we have to get away from here.”

Kimberly stared at her with wide eyes before nodding quickly and turning to run down the sidewalk. Trini let herself melt into the darkness and followed her at a distance until she saw her get into the car and drive away.

Finally letting her shoulders sag as she breathed a sigh of relief, she turned and headed for her own house. She reached into her pocket for her phone so she could text Zack and make sure he got out okay, but her brow furrowed when her fingers hit another object instead, too small to be her phone.

Pulling out her hand, Trini saw the yellow coin lying innocently in her palm, and she eyed it in confusion. She could have sworn she dropped it when the alarms went off.

After a moment, she shrugged and stuffed it back into her pocket. She could deal with that later; right now she had a partner to yell at.

 

 

 

The next day at school, she spotted Kimberly first, digging through her bag outside of a classroom, which was just her luck. She had been hoping to find Jason or Billy first, and let Zack deal with Kimberly.

They had both agreed that they needed to meet up with the other three, to make sure nobody was going to get in trouble, and also that they wouldn’t report them to anybody. Trini quickly took out her phone to text Zack that she had found Kimberly, and received a reply almost instantly saying that he’d found Billy and knew where he could find Jason. Nodding, Trini stowed her phone and looked around one more time.

“Hey,” Trini muttered, stepping up beside Kimberly, “We need to talk.”

Kimberly spun on her, eyes widening with surprise and then recognition, and Trini met her gaze steadily until she blinked herself out of it. She opened her mouth to say something, but at a look from Trini she snapped her mouth shut and turned back to her locker, even though Trini could practically feel the curiosity radiating off of her.

“Um, hey, I’m Kimberly,” she tried eventually, watching her from the corner of her eye, and Trini shrugged.

“I know,” she said as she leaned her back against the adjacent locker, adjusting her beanie and surveying the students around them, “Everyone does.”

“Right,” Kimberly let out a little self-conscious laugh, quickly packing her bag and closing her locker door. Trini waited for her to turn before starting to walk away, eager to get away from the crowd, and Kimberly hitched her bag up as she dutifully followed after her. “So, are you going to tell me why you broke into the museum in the middle of the night?”

“I’m an international art thief,” Trini deadpanned, not slowing down as she led the way to one of the classrooms open for students during lunchtime. Sticking her head in to make sure it was empty, she stood back and gestured for Kimberly to go first. Kimberly laughed and cuffed her in the shoulder as she walked past her and chose a desk, and Trini startled at the contact.

They sat quietly but didn’t have to wait long before Zack trooped in, Billy and Jason in tow.

“’Sup everybody!” he greeted them exuberantly, grinning and bowing his head at Kimberly.

Jason pushed the desk next to Trini’s closer and pulled up a chair, gesturing for Billy to sit next to him, and Zack grabbed a chair and turned it around so he could sit on it backwards, leaning his arms across the back of it as he nodded at Trini.

Trini eyed them all, watching as they waited awkwardly, and Jason was the first to break the silence, turning to her.

“I’m Jason,” he introduced himself, sticking out his hand, “Sorry, um, what was your name again? Who are you?”

Trini rolled her eyes but shook his hand. “Really, now you’re going to ask me who I am?”

Zack snickered, and she glared at him. “Her name’s Trini,” he told Jason.

“She’s new at school,” Kimberly spoke up, half turning her head, “Transferred in a month ago, we have English together, right?”

It was completely wrong, which meant that Trini’s attempts to go unnoticed had been successful.

It didn’t explain the sting that came with the words though.

“I’ve been at Angel Grove for over a year now, and we have biology together,” she nodded sarcastically, “Good talk.”

Kimberly flushed, wincing apologetically and curling her shoulders in, and Trini sighed and gave her a small smile, trying to convey that she wasn’t upset.

“Okay, first things first,” Zack pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it onto the desk in the middle of their huddle. “I may have kept one of the coins.”

Billy brightened, scrambling to pull something out of his jacket. “Hey, me too!” He revealed the blue coin, putting it down on the desk, and Zack laughed and reached over to set his down next to it.

“Alright, man! Guess I’m not the only one.”

“Um,” Kimberly rummaged through her bag and pulled out the pink coin, and Trini rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, me too,” Jason said, laying the red coin down next to hers.

Trini sighed and wordlessly pulled her own coin out, laying it down and completing the circle in front of them.

“So what do we do now?” Trini said flatly when nobody else spoke.

They all looked at each other, no ideas forthcoming, and Jason kicked his feet up onto another chair.

“Should we bring them back or something?” Billy suggested hesitantly.

Jason shook his head. “I don’t see how we’ll be able to pull off breaking in a _third_ time, especially now that they know we were there.”

“It’s not like we can just give them back and apologize,” Kimberly argued, “We’ll definitely get busted, and I don’t know about you guys but I cannot get into any more trouble.”

“Look, we all have to agree, whatever we do,” Zack shrugged, still looking unconcerned, “Once you commit a felony together, I feel like you’re pretty much stuck in the shit together.”

“Actually, I think breaking and entering is more of a misdemeanor,” Billy piped up, drumming a beat on the desk next to their coins.

“Okay, but what about burglary? We did technically steal the coins,” Zack pointed out.

Jason scratched the back of his head. “I think there has to be an intent to steal?”

“No, we pretty much stole them, even if they weren’t catalogued yet or whatever they do in museums,” Zack mused flippantly.

“I mean, we also destroyed that shelf,” Kimberly reminded them, “That’s property damage.”

“Wow, you guys watch way too many cop shows,” Trini muttered as she leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms.

“Well what’s your suggestion then?” Kimberly raised an eyebrow at her, and Trini’s mouth was suddenly dry in the face of Kimberly Hart’s attention turning on her.

“I… well – ”

Luckily, the warning bell went off at that exact moment, and Trini instinctively laid her hand over her coin to cover it, noting that the others all grabbed theirs as well.

“Are you guys free after school? We can meet at Krispy Kreme or something later and figure this out.”

Jason ran his hand through his hair. “I have to go pick up my sister first, bring her home. I can meet after that, though.”

“Yeah, I have to stop at home first too, but then I’m good,” Billy agreed, putting on his backpack as he got ready to leave.

Trini nodded, standing to shoulder her bag, and Zack leaned back to stretch his arms out, clearly unconcerned about getting to class. “Okay, so we’ll meet at Krispy Kreme an hour after school, that good?”

They all agreed, starting to troop out the door, and Trini kicked Zack in the ankle as she passed.

“You could take this a little more seriously, you know,” she told him crossly.

He squinted at her and then held up a hand to his ear, pretending to listen closely to something in the hall. “Oh, what was that? Hey, I think the bell went off, you’ll have to yell at me later! We have to get to class.” He grinned and scampered off before she could say anything, and Trini only scowled at his back quickly disappearing into the crowd before hurrying off to her own class.

 

At the end of the day, Trini found Zack by her locker, waiting patiently with his arms crossed as he surveyed the students moving through the halls. He nodded in greeting, pushing off so she could stow her books, and surprisingly didn’t say anything.

“Let’s go,” Trini said when she was done, shouldering her bag.

Zack nodded and fell into step next to her, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “So what do you make of them?”

“They’re… not quite what I expected,” she said carefully, and it was true.

“See? Wasn’t it a good thing that I decided we should introduce ourselves in the museum?”

“No. Absolutely not,” she glared at him, “And don’t think I’ve forgotten that either.”

They made their way towards the Krispy Kreme and headed straight for the back door, Trini unsuccessfully trying to berate Zack the whole way. They had found another entrance that connected to the base from inside one of the storage rooms, but considering the very public nature of it, they figured it was only for emergencies.

“I think you’re just jealous that I came up with it first. Sucks to suck.”

“Wow, so mature,” she said flatly, and Zack nodded earnestly.

“It was a great idea, and you’re totally welcome. God, it’s like I’m carrying the whole team here! Step it up, Trini.” He gave her a serene smile with the words, patting her one the shoulder, and Trini groaned and rubbed her hands down her face, taking a deep breath. Not for the first time, she wondered what Zack had done to get himself recruited by the agency.

Entering the base, they greeted Alpha and moved towards the conference table, not stopping in their bickering until Zordon’s face appearing on the screen.

“Director,” Trini said, sitting up in her chair and spinning away from Zack. “We’ve made contact with the three subjects.” She proceeded with her report, and Zordon didn’t interject until she got to the end. “…And we all came away with the five coins that were inside the box I assume to be the artifact, based on the tag of where and when it was found.”

Zordon stilled and stared at them. “Did you say coins?”

“Yeah,” Trini stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled out the yellow coin, holding it up to show him. In the light of the screens, it almost looked like it was glowing. “I mean, I think they’re coins.” At her side Zack pulled out his black one to show Zordon as well.

Zordon and Alpha exchanged a furtive glance, and Trini furrowed her brow.

“Sir?”

She watched as Zordon pressed his lips together, and he hesitated before speaking again.

“You are correct in assuming that was the artifact. As for the coins…” He trailed off and then abruptly changed the subject. “The alarm from that night may have tipped off our enemies that we’ve found something.” He shook his head. “Your new assignment is to get close to Kimberly, Jason, and Billy. Gain their trust. Protect them. Protect the coins.”

A flash of concern swept across Zack’s face, matching Trini’s.

“Sir, is something likely to happen? Shouldn’t we just take the coins from them?”

Zordon shook his head, eyes fading into a faraway look before snapping back to them. Suspicious, Trini considered her words carefully before speaking again.

“Is there some significance to these coins or these people, Director?”

“Now is not the time for delay,” Zordon deflected, shaking his head. “You two have officially been assigned as their protective detail. Covert surveillance and protection.”

“Director, there are only two of us. To be effective protocol dictates one operative per subject, and there are three of them.”

Zordon was silent for another moment. “In this case you will have to make do,” he said eventually, “We cannot bring in any others, this mission is too vulnerable for outside involvement. This information does not leave the people in this room. Understood, agents?”

They both nodded briskly, recognizing the dismissal when they heard it.

“Understood.”

Zordon nodded at them and then blinked away, leaving the screen black once more.

Alpha stepped forward with his arms crossed, tablet trapped against his chest. “Well, there’s the new mission. Anything you need from me? Brush up on guard training?”

Trini gave him a quick smile. “No, thanks Alpha.” She knew Alpha wouldn’t utter a single word in contradiction to what Zordon wanted them to know, so she didn’t bother asking. “Maybe just a kit to outfit their houses?”

He inclined his head, tapping away at his tablet again. “I’ll gather some surveillance tech for you.”

“Thanks, Alpha.”

He nodded and headed to the computer station, and Trini turned back to Zack.

“Alright, it’s almost time to meet them. You think you can keep them occupied long enough for me to set up the security at their houses?”

Zack scoffed. “Of course, who wouldn’t want to spend more time with my wonderful self? I’m hot and super fascinating.”

Trini only rolled her eyes. “Make sure they agree to keep the coins, we can’t have somebody just tossing theirs because they think it’s useless.”

“Hey, for all we know they are useless,” Zack said, squinting at his coin before shrugging and sticking it back in his pocket. “But you got it.”

 

Sitting in Krispy Kreme half an hour later, Trini finished off her donut and then pretended she had felt her phone buzz. “Oh,” Trini said, feigning surprise as she picked it up, “I have to head home, my parents need me to watch my brothers. Sorry guys.”

Kimberly’s head whipped towards her, expression strangely dismayed, but Trini didn’t wait to hear their responses, trusting Zack to be able to distract them effectively. He was good at that.

Waving at them, she picked up her backpack and left hurriedly before any questions started. “I’m on my way, Alpha,” she spoke as she pushed through the door, “Send me the directions to the first house.”

 

Shaking her head to get her hair out of her face, Trini glanced around again to make sure the street was still deserted as she set up the perimeter alarms around their houses, a toned down version of the security installed around her own home. She’d refused to install more than motion detectors so as to not infringe on their privacy more than was necessary, and these would alert Alpha if anybody they didn’t know approached the houses. It would be enough for him to react if there was a potential threat.

“Are you sure one person monitoring these is really the best way to go?” Trini mused as she crept to the edge of Jason’s roof and leaned over the edge, securing another sensor to the underside of the gutter. She had already finished Billy’s house, and would be moving on to Kimberly’s next.

“Don’t you worry, Agent Trini, I’ve been manning these channels longer than you’ve been with the agency! Nothing ever gets past me.”

“You man them? Like, personally?”

Alpha made an affirmative sound as Trini dropped to the ground, and she reached up to adjust her earpiece. “Alpha, when’s the last time you slept?”

“Sixty-five million years ago,” was his cheerful answer, and Trini laughed.

 

 

 

The next day, Trini felt oddly jittery, both excited about finally having a proper mission to focus on and suspicious about all the things Zordon was clearly keeping from them. She didn’t like being left out of the loop.

Zack was obviously feeling the same, unable to hold still as he bounced on his feet.

“And let the mission begin! It’s about time we got something to do, because no offence, sparring with you can only take up so much time before even that gets dull.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Unfortunately, the mission involved getting close to people, which was not Trini’s strongest suit, and that was taking away from her excitement.

“First day,” Zack rubbed his hands together, “We finally get some action.”

“Yup,” she muttered, swiping through her phone just for something to do. “Babysitting the three of them is like hitting the mission jackpot.”

He looked over at her in surprise. “What’s up with you?”

She sighed, shoving her phone into her pocket and wishing she was wearing her headphones. “Nothing, I just wish there was more to this mission right now. I’ve never actually been sent to cultivate an asset for the agency, I don’t like the – ” she waved a hand around in front of her, “You know, _talking_.” She excelled at literally everything else, but none of it seemed like it would be useful here.

Zack threw an arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze, nodding understandingly.

“Got it, you’re more the strong and silent type.” He let her go spun to face her, hands on his hips. “But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get to punch something soon. Hey, if you’re lucky somebody will attack them and you’ll even get to stab a bad guy.”

Trini gave him half a smile, appreciating his effort to lighten her mood. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

He nodded in satisfaction and looked towards the door before turning back to her. “Ready?” he asked with a weighted stare, holding his hand up towards her for a high five.

Trini met his eyes and nodded, slapping her hand against his waiting one. “Ready.”

 

Somebody was following Trini as she left biology class, and she tightened her grip on her backpack, keeping calm as she tried to sort out if it was just another student walking in the same direction as her. Conscious of the fact that she couldn’t take somebody down in the middle of the school hallway without arousing suspicion, she angled her head down, instinctively on guard and trying to catch a glimpse out of the corner of her eye as she consciously kept her shoulders loose.

There was a flash of pink, and she relaxed as she picked out the now familiar footsteps amidst the bustle of the students leaving class. Caution gone, Trini turned down a less crowded hallway and spun to face Kimberly with a raised eyebrow.

Right behind her, Kimberly pulled to a stop, giving her a surprised look and greeting her brightly. “Hi! You move really fast.” She adjusted her bag and then looked around surreptitiously. “So, I was just wondering… since you left early yesterday, would you want to hang out?” She smiled crookedly. “I figure since we have class together, we should probably get to know each other a little bit.”

“Sure,” Trini agreed easily, glad that Kimberly seemed to be doing her job for her. “You doing anything now?”

“Nope!” she said cheerfully, “I was hoping you’d be free.” Kimberly put a hand on her arm and started to pull her towards the front entrance of the school.

Trini made sure to keep an eye on the crush of students around them, not expecting to find a threat here but on guard nonetheless. Kimberly’s hand was warm where it had slid down to grip her wrist, and Trini’s fingers twitched.

“Hey guys,” Zack called loudly from right behind them, causing Trini to spin around defensively, and Trini only barely realized that she had stepped between him and Kimberly, one hand reaching for the pocket knife she had tucked away in her back pocket.

“Zack,” she said tightly, rolling her eyes and keeping one hand outstretched to guide Kimberly towards the doors. “What’s up?”

He shrugged, giving them both a smile as he fell into step beside Trini. “Just heading home, saw you guys walking by.”

It was pleasantly warm outside when they pushed through the doors, sun shining brightly, and Trini observed all the students dispersing, everyone cheerful now that school was out for the day. Zack leaned around her to ask Kimberly a question, easy as everything he did, and for once Trini appreciated how effortless it was for him. She had received the same training as him, but casual conversations were her weakest point, unable to share even when it was faked.

“I’ll call you tonight, alright Trini?” Zack said to her, and she nodded, knowing he meant he’d catch her up on Jason and Billy.

“Yeah, talk to you soon.”

“See you later!” he waved as he ran off, and Trini lifted her hand in response. Strangely enough, when she turned back Kimberly’s face was scrunched up in something that almost looked like annoyance, but as soon as she saw her looking it was wiped clean, the easy smile back in place.

“So,” she said, adjusting her jacket, “Krispy Kreme?”

Trini nodded and resuming her easy stroll down the sidewalk, keeping her hands hanging loosely at her sides even though she wanted to stuff them into her pockets. Tracking a distant helicopter in the sky, she took a small step to the side to get out of the way of a jogger coming up behind her, unintentionally knocking into Kimberly, and she quickly mumbled an apology. Strangely enough, Kimberly took the opportunity to link their arms together, continuing down the sidewalk like nothing had happened. Trini snuck a glance up at her out of the corner of her eye as they reached the Krispy Kreme.

Kimberly reached out and caught the door, holding it open for Trini, and Trini tried to hide her expression of surprise. There was a hand on Trini’s back as Kimberly ushered her through, and it took all of Trini’s training not to startle at the touch. The air was suddenly charged with _something_ , and Trini distracted herself by focusing on the smell of donuts and the murmur of conversation that washed over them.

They each got coffee and a donut before heading for an empty table at the back, and Trini quickly slid into the booth with her back to the wall, affording her with an unobscured view of the entire place while Kimberly took the chair opposite her.

“So I’m sorry about… not knowing how long you’ve been in Angel Grove, and stuff,” Kimberly started sheepishly, wrapping both hands around her cup and fiddling with the lid.

Trini waved a hand, “It’s alright, don’t worry about it. I’m really good at playing the new girl, I’ve had way too much practice.”

“You move around a lot?”

“Uh, yeah,” Trini hesitated, feeling uncomfortably off balance about being questioned so soon. “My mom’s work moves us all over.”

“That’s cool. What’s the best place you’ve lived?”

If Trini didn’t know better, it would seem that to make up for it, Kimberly was now making it a point to get to know Trini, and Trini shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

“Hawaii,” she answered honestly, head instinctively turning to the side at the sound of the bell above the door chiming. She took note of everyone coming in, and didn’t realize how closely Kimberly was watching her.

“You don’t talk very much, do you?” Kimberly asked, more rhetorical than anything else, and Trini jerked her head up, ready to defend herself before she realized that it hadn’t been meant as an insult. She shrugged noncommittally instead, forcing herself to stop fiddling with the plastic tab on the lid of her cup and pick up her donut.

Tilting her head, Kimberly gave her a small smile, eyes crinkling endearingly, and Trini blinked at her. “So are you and Zack dating?” Kimberly asked, and Trini choked on her mouthful of donut.

“W–what?” she coughed, forgetting about only feeding Kimberly boring information from her cover.

Kimberly raised an eyebrow, bemused at the reaction. “I’m just saying, I’ve seen you guys in here together a couple of times, it wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility.”

“Ohh no,” Trini shook her head hard, wiping her hand over her mouth to get rid of the sugar stuck to it. “No, it is definitely outside the realm of possibility. Very, very far outside. Different country. Different planet or something. God, _no_.”

Kimberly leaned forward on crossed forearms with an intrigued look on her face. “No?”

Trini leaned back in her seat and took a sip of her coffee, using the motion to quickly survey the rest of the room before returning her gaze to Kimberly.

“He’s… not my type.”

Kimberly looked at her with a weighted stare, and Trini shifted minutely as she tremulously held her gaze, something inside of her telling her not to break the eye contact. She searched her eyes, heart suddenly pounding in her throat, and time seemed to slow down dangerously.

While she was distracted, Kimberly reached forward and then quickly shoved something into her mouth, and Trini stared at her blankly.

“Did you just… steal the last piece of my donut?”

Kimberly shrugged impishly and kept chewing. “We can fight for it next time,” she said with her mouth full, completely unrepentant as Trini gaped at her.

She grinned, and thus began what might just be the worst mission of Trini’s life.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Trini was the best spy of her generation. Trini was the famed agent who had been jumped ahead two years in her training, was the youngest in her division, was the one who had singlehandedly taken down an international gun smuggling ring within eight months of being on active duty.

Trini was absolutely not having a good time, and it was all because of this group of high schoolers she had been assigned to protect.

Zack laughed loudly and slung his arms around Billy and Jason’s shoulders. He had proudly declared at their last briefing with that he had bonded super easily with Billy and Jason, citing ‘It’s guy stuff, dude. We’re bros now.’ While good news for their assignment, it left Trini the primary task of getting closer to Kimberly. Kimberly, who was being very persistent in her quest to get to know Trini, and she had to keep reminding herself that there was nothing mistrustful about that. Kimberly wanting to be friends was a good thing.

Trini rolled her eyes as she continued to gather the remains of her lunch to throw out, stalling until Kimberly was done hers and they could walk to the trashcans together. Admittedly, she wasn’t bad company, and Trini could definitely do worse in terms of assignments. That didn’t mean she couldn’t complain in her own head.

They left the cafeteria together as a group, and with Zack literally hanging on to the boys, it was unspoken that Kimberly was Trini’s responsibility. Zack was finding her reticence when it came to Kimberly hilarious, and as he shot her a look, Trini could practically hear his voice telling her to look less like a bodyguard and more like a friend.

She hesitantly reached out and grabbed Kimberly’s hand, feeling foolish but keeping her gaze aimed straight ahead, feigning nonchalance.

Even having only known her for a short period of time, Trini was very aware of how touchy Kimberly was, so unfortunately that meant Trini had to try and match her pattern of behavior so Kimberly would be more likely to trust her. Mirroring a subject’s actions was a proven technique, and Kimberly was all about casual contact. It was also very… distracting, and given her mission, Trini couldn’t afford to be distracted. It made her uneasy whenever she realized she wasn’t completely focusing on her task, and it was suddenly becoming a much too frequent occurrence.

Kimberly turned to her with a surprised smile on her face at the touch and then laced their fingers together, tugging her down the hallway towards her locker. Trini eyed their joined hands with trepidation, but she didn’t let go, and neither did Kimberly.

 

 

 

Rooting through her bag, Trini came up with her portable charger but sighed when she realized she had left her wire at home. Because of how important it was to stay in contact with Alpha, she had been outfitted with the standard agency portable charger specifically designed to hold enough battery to power a standard phone eighteen times over, but it was no good to her without her charging cable.

“Dude, everything okay?” Jason asked her, brow pinched with concern as he watched the way she was digging through her bag. Zack immediately broke off his conversation with Kimberly, turning to her with his hand already reaching for his own phone, but Trini shook her head, sending him a half smile.

“I just need to get my phone charger,” Trini told him, “You guys go ahead, I’ll see you later.”

Zack relaxed but didn’t let her turn away, grabbing her arm and shaking his head. “What are you talking about? There’s plenty of time before the movie starts, go get your charger and we’ll wait for you. Don’t think you can just run away and get out of this, crazy girl.” He lunged for her with his arms extended, and not expecting it, Trini hastened to dodge to the side. She was half a second too slow, and made the mistake of assuming he was going for her arm. In reality, he was reaching for her backpack, and when he got a hold on it, he used her motion to twist it off her shoulder and yank it out of her grip.

Trini gaped at him and he beamed, dangling her bag in the air with one hand. “See, I have a hostage. You can get this back when we’re in the movie theater. Now run along! Kimmy can go with you while we get the snacks.”

Trini sighed and rolled her eyes, but tilted her head towards Kimberly to see if she was willing to take the short walk back to her house with her.

“Sure,” Kimberly agreed, giving Trini an easy smile and turning on her heel.

“Alright,” Trini sighed, giving the boys a wave before turning to follow Kimberly. She was mostly quiet on the walk as she scanned their surroundings, but by now Kimberly appeared to have gotten used to it. She continued to talk, but she never pushed for a response, and Trini found herself relaxing to the sound of her voice.

Reaching her house, Trini made her way up the front steps but then stopped, patting herself down. “Wait, I don’t have my key.”

Kimberly laughed. “It’s in your bag, which Zack has, because he stole it from you to make sure that you’d come to the movies with us.”

“…Right,” Trini said, taking a moment to glare at the ground both for letting Zack take her bag and forgetting to grab her key out of it before she walked away. Shaking her head, she took a few steps back and adjusted her beanie, looking up at her bedroom window.

Kimberly sighed. “So what do we do? When do your parents get home?”

Trini kept her head tilted up as she considered the distance she would have to cover to climb to her room. “Not for a couple of hours,” she mused, stepping over to the side of the house to see if she could get her foot up on the first floor windowsill.

“Wait, Trini – ”

Not waiting to hear the rest of her sentence, Trini propped her foot up and pushed off, grabbing the ledge of the roof and hauling herself up with both hands. She swung her legs up neatly, taking a moment to catch her balance before reaching out and jimmying her window open, and made a pleased sound when it went without resistance.

She looked down to see Kimberly gaping up at her and then belatedly realized what she’d just done, doing her best to hide her wince.

“Um… I used to do – rock climbing. I used to climb a lot.”

Kimberly blinked at her, amazed looks still on her face, and Trini turned away so she wouldn’t see her grimace, climbing through the window. “I’ll just be a second!”

 

 

 

Trini made her way through the halls with her head down, keeping one ear out for the general murmur of the students and locker doors slamming. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out to read the text from Kimberly, glad her loose hair could hide the surprised smile from spreading across her face.

“Where’s your bodyguard?” a loud voice taunted from up ahead, and Trini lifted her head at the sound, spotting Billy around the corner. Something felt wrong, and she quickly stowed her phone and headed towards him.

“What are you doing?” he asked, and Trini got a look at who he was talking to.

It was Colt Wallace, one of the many bullies of Angel Grove High, and as soon as Trini heard Billy’s confused voice she sped up, hurrying to get to him.

“I’m just quietly going to snap your wrist, you little bitch.”

Hearing the threat and seeing Colt reaching for Billy, Trini darted forwards and slammed her open palm into his elbow, causing him to yelp and draw his arm back. Not wasting a second, she wrapped her own hand around his wrist and twisted his arm behind his back, using her free hand to hold his shoulder at arms length and causing him to bend over at the waist in an effort to minimize the discomfort.

She knew exactly how much pressure it would take to dislocate his shoulder, and her eyes hardened as she weighed the merits of it. They were off to the side of the main hallway, but soon they would be drawing attention, and that was something Trini needed to avoid.

“Ah ah,” she chided disapprovingly, tightening her grip on Colt and raising an eyebrow at the pained sound he made. “What was that?” she asked mildly, having no trouble keeping him still as he struggled.

“Let me go!”

Trini made a noncommittal sound, finally deciding that a scare was enough. “You’re going to stop this,” she said through gritted teeth, her eyes flashing, “You want to know why? Because this trick right here?” She jerked his arm back even farther for emphasis, causing him to yelp again, “I learned this from my good friend Billy.”

She let go and pushed him away from her, keeping Billy behind her, and he stumbled away with an enraged look on his face.

“You’re crazy!”

She watched him scamper off, disappearing down the hallway before turning back to Billy.

“Hey, I’m sorry about that,” she said, shifting uncomfortably, “I didn’t mean to like, step in on anything, or make it seem like you can’t take care of yourself – ”

“No, no, no!” Billy waved his hands in front of him, a stunned look on his face as he shook his head. “Maybe – maybe in another life I could have, but – but, thank you! Could you show me how to do that?”

Trini thought about it for a second. “You know what? Self–defense lessons is a great idea.”

Billy nodded enthusiastically at her, clapping his hands together, and Trini smiled, pretending she didn’t have his schedule memorized. “So where’s your next class?”

 

 

 

Sitting in Kimberly’s bedroom, Trini leaned back in the desk chair and sighed. Kimberly was lying on her stomach across her bed, busily taking notes from the open textbook in front of her, and Trini turned to face the desk, idly twisting in the chair. She could feel the yellow coin in her pocket and gave in to the urge to pull it out, examining it again. There was something about it that called to her, something that told her there was more than they were seeing. These coins were important somehow.

Putting it back in her pocket, Trini sighed and picked up her recently returned biology test as she thought about it. She noted that the sound of Kimberly’s pen scratching had stopped, and looked over to see her already watching her.

“Didn’t go well?” Kimberly asked sympathetically, and it took Trini a moment to realize that she had misinterpreted the sound as her being disappointed about her test.

“Uh – ”

“I can help, you know,” Kimberly offered, showing Trini the _A+_ written on the top of her test, “Help you study or whatever?”

“Um, yeah. Yeah, that sounds – that sounds great,” Trini made sure to keep her paper angled away from Kimberly to hide her own near perfect grade. “Thanks, Kim.”

Kimberly’s phone chimed on the nightstand, and the way Trini’s buzzed at the same time told her it was a message coming through their newly created group chat with the boys. Trini automatically looked up at the sound, gaze drawn to where the pink coin was resting on Kimberly’s nightstand next to the phone.

“Hey, what do you make of the coins we found?” Trini asked carefully as Kimberly stretched out to reach for the phone.

“What, this?” Kimberly glanced at her and picked up the coin instead, eyeing it and then knocking it against the table. “It’s just a hunk of rock. Shiny, but that’s it. Worthless.” She raised an eyebrow. “You know this, you have one too.”

“Can I see yours?” Trini asked, making sure to keep her voice mild, and Kimberly shrugged, tossing it over.

Trini caught it deftly and held it up in front of her eyes, examining the pink coin carefully before putting it down and sighing. The room went back to the quiet from before, but this time it only lasted a few minutes before a light thump distracted her.

“Trini,” Kimberly whined pitifully, head down on the bed in front of her. “Trini, please. Put me out of my misery.”

Looking away from the window where she had been watching a mother wrangle three children with ice cream cones outside, Trini blinked uncertainly.

“Um, I don’t – If you finish that, we can… go get ice cream?” Trini tried, face twisted unsurely.

Kimberly bounced up immediately, smiling widely. “You’re on.”

 

 

 

During their next mission report with the director, Trini heard her phone vibrate at the same time as Zack’s.

“It’s Jason,” Zack said, checking his phone first, “With an invite to go bowling.”

Scrolling through her own messages, Trini saw she had the same thing.

“Excellent work, agents,” Zordon intoned, “This is a good sign, you’re getting closer to them.”

“Yeah,” Zack said, nudging Trini in the side, “I think it’s going well. They trust us.”

Trini nodded, wondering why she didn’t feel as pleased as they were. By all accounts, she should have been proud of their progress, but Trini wondered exactly how desperate the others were that they had latched on to them as new friends so quickly. She spun in her chair as she thought about it. Of course she knew their situations from their background checks, but bland reports never quite showed how lonely a person could be. Trini would know.

“Looks like we’re going bowling!” Zack exclaimed, “I hope you know I’m gonna kick your ass.”

Without looking up, Trini smirked and threw her pen at him, hitting him squarely in the forehead.

“In your dreams, Taylor.”

 

 

 

“Come on crazy girl, it’ll be fun!” Zack was grinning widely, bouncing on his feet and clearly excited, but Trini only scowled at him.

Kimberly had invited them over for an afternoon in her pool, claiming she didn’t want to stay in an empty house alone and that it was too hot to do anything else. Which was all well and good, but Trini knew it would be more secure if they stayed inside. She had combed through Kimberly’s backyard, and there were far too many unsecured entry points. Besides, they should probably be spending their time more constructively and studying for their upcoming midterms.

Those were the reasons why she didn’t think this was a good idea. The thought of Kimberly Hart in a bathing suit totally didn’t play into it at all.

She continued to stand there with a frown on her face, and Zack rolled his eyes.

“Less bodyguard, more friend, remember?” he repeated, putting his hands on her shoulders.

Trini took a deep breath before shaking him off and nodding. Right. She was taking this too seriously again. There was no harm in a pool party.

An image of Kimberly in a bathing suit flashed across her mind again, and Trini swallowed. No harm at all.

 

Billy was already wearing his swimming trunks and standing on the pool steps with the water up to his calves when they got there, and Jason was removing his knee brace, setting it on the table and following after him. Kimberly was in the water, and she waved at them enthusiastically.

Tossing his bag towards a pool chair, Zack stripped off his shirt and whooped, throwing it to the side and cannonballing into the water. The motion surprised a laugh out of Trini, and Kimberly cheered as he sent a wave of water crashing over Jason’s head.

Trini let her head fall back, enjoying the warmth of the sun on her face as she moved around towards the pool chairs. Picking one and sitting down, she started rooting through her bag for her towel, aiming to set it out in the sun before she got into the water.

“Hey Trini, can I have some of your water? I forgot mine in the kitchen.”

Trini looked up to see Kimberly standing on the edge of the pool, dripping wet and pushing her hair away from her face. Trini stilled, eyes wide, but she quickly got herself under control after Zack let out a loud cough, grinning at her. After a moment’s consideration, she set her phone down on the chair next to her and stood, picking up a full glass of water on the table and bringing it over.

“Thanks,” Kimberly took it gratefully, chugging the whole thing in one go, and Trini averted her eyes to the sky to prevent herself from focusing on all the exposed skin on display.

Sighing in satisfaction, Kimberly bent down to place the glass by her feet and then straightened to meet Trini’s eyes with a bright smile on her face.

“And, I’m really sorry.”

Trini eyed her warily, not understanding what she was apologizing for. “Sorry for what?” 

Without warning, Kimberly lunged forward to grab Trini’s shoulders, and Trini realized three things at the exact same time.

One, Kimberly Hart was about to pull her into the pool, and not only had she let her guard down way too far to not be prepared for it, she was still fully clothed. Two, Kimberly’s eyes were a lighter brown than Trini had originally thought, and they had these little flecks of gold that shone in the light.

And three?

Trini was absolutely, completely, irrevocably screwed.

 

Hours later, Kimberly laughed as she rose out of the water, shaking her wet hair out of her face. The setting sun caught on the drops of water, and that was a fact Trini studiously ignored, squeezing her eyes shut and then dunking her head so she could push her hair out of her face underwater.

Just as she resurfaced, a flash of movement made Trini turn her head towards the gate, something telling her to be on guard even though there was nothing there. None of Kimberly’s perimeter alarms had been set off, and Trini narrowed her eyes.

Debating whether or not she should go check it out, she didn’t hear Billy calling to her the first few times, but the sound eventually pulled her away from her thoughts.

“Hey Trini!” Billy waved a foam football at her from where he was treading water, “Wanna play?”

Jason turned to her expectantly from where he was bouncing lightly on the diving board, and Trini turned away from the fence, putting the strange feeling out of her mind. “What are you playing?”

“One person flips off the diving board,” Billy pointed at Jason, “And then someone throws the ball and you have to catch it before you hit the water. Like this!” Billy gestured enthusiastically at Jason, and he obligingly took a step back before jumping high off the diving board. He flailed to catch the ball Billy tossed at him, and Trini laughed when it hit him in the chin and he landed sideways in the water.

“So?” Billy asked with a laugh, and Jason sent droplets of water flying when he resurfaced and shook his hair out.

“I don’t know,” Trini mused, “What if I miss it worse than that?”

Kimberly laughed, the sound bright. “I saw that flip you did while we were running in the museum, you’re trying to tell me you can’t jump off a diving board?”

Trini flushed, but in the next second dropped to the side, arm coming up to shield her head and catching the blue flutterboard Zack had just winged at her.

“Come on dude, show us what you got!” he yelled, completely unrepentant as she glared at him, and then she sighed in resignation, tossing the flutterboard back at him.

“Alright, bring it on.”

 

 

 

Staring at the ceiling, Trini swung her feet where they were dangling over the arm of the couch she was lying on. The base was empty again save for her and Zack, Alpha nowhere to be found, and she found the hollow quality of their echoes surprisingly soothing.

“What’s up?” Zack asked, coming to perch on the back of the couch next to her.

Trini hummed noncommittally, loosely waving a hand, but Zack gave her a look, making it very clear he wasn’t going to drop it.

“Come on, something’s bugging you,” Zack prodded her in the side, and she batted him away.

“I just… have a weird feeling. About the coins, this mission, just – everything.” She shifted to pull her coin out of her jeans, holding it up above her head. “I don’t know, just something about it.”

Zack willingly handed his black coin over, letting her turn it over in her hands as he kicked his feet up so he was stretched out across the back of the couch.

“Is it a bad feeling?”

Trini shrugged. “I mean, they told us to lie to Kim and Jason and Billy and protect them, instead of just taking the coins away and keeping those safe. There has to be more information in play. Like, this whole ‘trust us blindly’ thing the agency always has going on. I don’t – ” She cut herself off and sighed roughly, shaking her head. “I don’t know.”

“Where is this coming from?” Zack’s voice was just as carefree as always, but something vulnerable was showing on his face, something that compelled her to keep talking instead of snapping her jaw shut.

“Oh, nothing, it’s just – I get why we can’t tell them the truth, obviously, but…”

She wanted to. For some reason, keeping the truth from the other three felt a bit too much like _lying_ , and Trini couldn’t figure out why that was bothering her. Lying was literally what she did, all the time.

“You don’t wonder about the agency sometimes?” she changed tracks, “Like, suspect they’re up to something shady, not telling us the whole truth?”

Zack rolled his eyes. “Of course I do. But I don’t have a choice, man.”

Trini propped herself up on her elbows to give him her full attention, and he rolled his eyes again, scratching the back of his neck before swinging his arms out.

“I have to trust the agency, no matter how sketchy it becomes. It’s my only option.”

Something dark was shining in his eyes, and Trini kept quiet. She reminded herself that, for all his projected bravado and brash incompetence, there was a reason Zack had been chosen for the agency. While Trini would have originally wanted a partner that was maybe less annoying and more professional, there was absolutely no doubt that Zack could keep his cover, make people trust him, make them believe that everything would be okay.

Trini was pretty sure he was so good he fooled himself most of the time.

 

 

 

Even though most of her classes weren’t anywhere near Kimberly’s, Trini made it a point to walk her to class on days when they split up. It was important that she was covered as much as possible, though Trini did her best not to think about it, not wanting to face her own suspicion that there was more to it.

“Hey, Kim.”

Kimberly jumped and let out a yelp, fumbling her phone before she caught it and pressed it to her chest. Whirling around, she stared at Trini with wide eyes.

“Don’t _do_ that! God, you’re quiet when you walk, I had no idea you were here,” she flushed, quickly locking her phone and stowing it in her bag.

“I – sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Trini said, hanging back hesitantly. Nervous, she shuffled her feet, chastising herself for not waiting until Kimberly had noticed her.

“No worries, I was just talking to Jason about – something,” she said evasively, giving her a too-wide smile and changing the subject. “Okay! Time to go? We don’t want to be late to class!”

Trini inclined her head, and Kimberly’s grin softened. “Come on,” she threw her arm across Trini’s shoulders, and together they turned to walk down the hallway.

 

 

 

“You know what, I’m pretty sure I know why you were never assigned to cultivate any assets for the agency,” Zack told her one day with a laugh as they were sitting in Krispy Kreme.

“What are you talking about,” Trini said crossly, trying to erase some of her biology homework so it would actually be believable to Kimberly that she needed help completing it.

“The relationships we’re supposed to be going for are friendship. You know, platonic? Ever heard of it?”

“What? That’s what I’m doing,” Trini shot him a look before going back to examining her assignment.

“Maybe with Billy and Jason you are, but Kimberly? I don’t think so.”

“What do you mean?” Trini asked distractedly, blowing the eraser shavings off her paper and brushing them away.

Before he could answer, the other three arrived, headed straight to the table they had claimed. Billy and Jason said their hellos and then headed to the counter to order, while Kimberly took a detour to greet Trini with a quick kiss on the cheek before she followed them.

“That’s what I mean,” Zack whispered smugly as Kimberly went to get them donuts, and Trini punched him in the arm.

 

 

 

“Hey,” Trini greeted quietly, coming up behind Jason where he was leaning against the bleachers watching the football team practice, and he smiled in return.

“Hey.”

He didn’t say anything else, keeping his eyes on the field with a wistful expression on his face, and Trini knew that he missed playing.

“So, you were the quarterback, right?” Trini said casually, crossing her arms and leaning against the bleachers next to him, propping her foot up. Jason nodded, and she tilted her head. “Means you’ve probably got a pretty decent throwing arm, yeah?”

He laughed once, and there was no hint of a boast in his voice when he answered, “Yeah, I can throw. Did you ever play?” he asked, finally turning away from the field, and Trini shrugged nonchalantly.

“I play catch with my brothers sometimes. But I will say that I’ve got a pretty decent throw myself.” She raised her eyebrows at him teasingly, waiting for him to tilt his head in return.

“Was that a challenge?”

She saw the defiant spark start to grow in his eyes, and she smirked. “I’ll bet you I can hit any target with a football better than you can.”

Jason let out a laugh but held his hands up. “I’ll take that bet.”

Trini smiled and held out her hand for a fist bump, glad that he was letting her distract him, and then went to sweet–talk the coach into letting her borrow a football.

 

 

 

Trini let her lips curl up into a soft smile when she saw Kimberly standing at her locker, stuffing books into her bag. It was becoming a habit now, meeting Kimberly at her locker and then going to lunch together, and Trini found herself immeasurably glad that hers and Zack’s protective details had fallen the way they had.

She took measured steps forward, making sure to scuff her feet against the floor and make enough sound to alert Kimberly of her approach. She didn’t want to scare her again.

“Hey!” Kimberly turned and greeted her brightly, “You decided where you want to go for dinner yet?”

Trini shrugged, shaking her head. “I’m telling you, I’m good with wherever you want to go.”

Kimberly pouted at her before linking their arms and pulling her towards the cafeteria. Trini let her ramble, happy to hear about her day, and she felt Zack coming up behind her with Jason and Billy not far behind. She turned to greet them over her shoulder, and Zack ducked his head towards her ear.

“Hey, good move with the noisy footsteps,” Zack murmured, “It would be creepy if you always moved like a ninja, nice cover.”

Trini nodded and tugged her beanie lower with her free hand. There was that too.

 

 

 

Having friends was surprisingly nice, but Trini couldn’t let go of the gnawing suspicion that there was more to this assignment than they were aware of. It wasn’t in her nature to let something like this slide.

“You don’t want to know what these things do?” Trini said quietly to Zack, taking one last discrete glance around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. “Why does Zordon say they’re so important?”

They were all on their way to her house for a movie night, something Trini wasn’t entirely opposed to, but she also wasn’t exactly sure how she’d been talked into it.

“Well, yeah, but I figure we just have to wait,” Zack says in a hushed whisper, “Keep our cover, and they’ll tell us eventually.”

Trini nodded, falling back unconsciously to walk next to Kimberly, and she chewed on her lip as she thought. Not only did she want to know the truth, she wanted to tell the others. It was the one thing she absolutely couldn’t do without blowing the mission and exposing the agency, but she still wanted it.

She shook her head forcefully to snap herself out of it as they approached her house. There was no use considering this; it couldn’t happen.

“And here we are,” Trini unlocked the door and pushed it open, waving them all inside, “Make yourselves at home.”

They made their way to the living room, and Trini left them to poke around curiously as she went to stow her backpack up in her room. As she was coming back down the stairs, Billy called her over from the front entryway.

“Hey Trini, what does this do?”

Trini looked up and paled at the sight of Billy examining the decorative figurine of a tiger sitting on the mantle, Jason standing next to him.

“It’s loose or something – ”

“Wait!” Trini exclaimed, jumping the last two steps and wedging herself in between them. “That’s – we shouldn’t touch it, it’s my dad’s. Um, why don’t we order some pizza for dinner?” Trini said somewhat frantically, keeping her body twisted so she could reach over and plant her hand on the matching figurine Jason was touching, preventing the hidden latch underneath it from being triggered. “There’s a great place a couple blocks away, the menu’s in the kitchen.”

That was enough to divert Jason’s attention to the kitchen, and Billy followed after him. Trini heaved a huge sigh of relief, letting her head fall against the wall. When she carefully pushed herself away from the ornaments that opened her hidden arsenal, she saw that Kimberly was standing in the hallway too, head bent as she examined something in her hands.

Trini lunged forward, heart in her throat as she calculated how close she was standing to the very dangerous weaponry hidden in a panel behind the shelf, but backpedalled forcefully when she saw that Kimberly was only holding one of the picture frames sitting on the shelf, not lifting the shelf itself.

“Oh, hey Trini,” Kimberly said, scrunching up her nose as she bit back her amusement at the sight of her flailing.

“Hey, Kim,” Trini breathed out, trying to hide her relief, but then she froze up again. “Oh, we don’t need to look at these,” she said nervously, reaching out to take the picture frame out of her hands.

Kimberly held it out of her reach playfully before setting it back on the shelf, but she didn’t move when Trini tried to tug her back towards the living room.

“No, I want to see little Trini,” she protested, pointing at the scattered family photos decorating the hall.

“No, nope, let’s not do that,” Trini pushed her away, and Kimberly laughed as she let herself be manhandled towards the couch.

“So, food?” Trini said, trying not to look too frazzled as she stood in front of them with her hands on her hips, and she pointedly ignored the way Zack was laughing at her.

 

Taking a bite of pizza, Trini noticed Zack giving her a contemplative side–eye as he stuffed his face. She raised her eyebrows at him in question, but he only grinned through a mouthful of cheese and went back to helping Billy stack DVD cases.

“Anyone want another drink?” Trini asked, finishing off her pizza and standing to move into the kitchen. She took note of their responses and picked up a napkin as she made her way across the kitchen, wiping off her fingers.

Something pulled at the edge of her awareness when she crossed the threshold into the other room, and Trini furrowed her brow as she turned to stare out the window, seeing nothing in the darkness outside. She waited a moment, and when nothing else happened, she let her attention be drawn away when Zack came crowding in behind her.

“Dude, she’s _into_ you.”

Trini blinked, watching as he jabbed a finger towards Kimberly still sitting on the couch, and then shot him an incredulous look. “What the hell are you talking about? No she’s not.”

“What kind of spy are you? Yes, she is!” 

She rolled her eyes and decided not to respond, giving him an exasperated look before picking up the assorted drinks and sweeping out of the room. Of course Kimberly wasn’t into her. What kind of ridiculous notion was that?

She settled back onto the sofa, sinking into the cushions next to Kimberly, and tried to squash the tiny bit of hope rearing its head in her chest, doing her best to focus on the TV. Kimberly hummed and pressed their arms together, leaning into her, and Trini snuck a quick sidelong glance. Kimberly was watching the movie, her lips curved up in a slight smile, and Trini let herself relax into her, resolving to enjoy the rest of the night and ignore everything Zack had said. He clearly had no idea what he was talking about.

 

Outside, the bushes shook once, and a shadowed figure darted out from behind them, moving silently. The person stopped and watched the teenagers through the window for a long moment, and then turned back and sank into the darkness. Inside, Trini shifted on the couch again, but when she turned her head to take one last glance out the window, there was nothing there for her to see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter we finally learn what the coins are for!


	4. Chapter 4

The lunch bell rang out, and Trini shifted uneasily as they moved through the hallways. The hair on the back of her neck was standing up, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched, a feeling that was becoming increasingly prevalent as the days went on. Even though it consistently turned out to be nothing, Trini wasn’t convinced that it was only due to her growing paranoia.

She kept an eye on the press of students around them as Kimberly led the way outside to meet the boys for lunch, and Trini automatically reached for Kimberly’s sleeve.

“You okay?” Kimberly glanced over at the touch, brow furrowed and voice concerned.

“Ah, yeah. Yeah, sorry,” Trini told her, cursing herself out for being so obvious. “Just… you ever feel like someone’s watching you?”

“Aw, don’t worry,” Kimberly giggled, tangling their fingers together, “I’ll protect you!”

Trini gave her a shaky smile, huffing a laugh and forcing herself to relax as they continued walking, but the feeling of unease remained.

 

 

 

“Alpha?” Trini called as she hurried down the stairs, Zack at her heels, “Alpha, I need to talk to Zordon.”

Preoccupied with his tablet, Alpha only mumbled something and gave her a thumbs up before pointing distractedly at the wide screen.

Zordon’s face appeared after a moment, and his head swung around to focus on them. “This will have to be quick, agents, I have urgent matters to attend to.”

Trini nodded, not planning to waste any time. “Director, I want to know what the coins are,” she said, lifting her chin and setting her jaw. She knew she was out of line. “If they’re dangerous, I need to know.”

Zordon fell silent, watching them both, and Trini could feel Zack shifting uneasily behind her shoulder.

“Yes, I suppose… I suppose you do,” Zordon finally murmured, pressing his lips together and lifting his head. “They have to be connected to reveal their secret,” he began, and Trini tilted her head to the side, mentally heaving a sigh of relief.

“And what’s that?”

“A map. A map in six parts.”

“Six parts? But we’ve only got five coins.” Trini didn’t where the _we_ came from, didn’t know when she had started referring to these people as part of an _us_ instead of a _them_ , but it was true. In her mind, they were a team now, for better or for worse.

“There is a sixth coin. Green.”

Trini eyed Zordon warily, sensing something significant to this mention of an extra coin, but Zack waved his hand and cut her off before she could ask.

“Never mind that. A map for what?”

Zordon sighed and watched them both for a long second before speaking again. “The Zeo Database, mark 19-B6, class 242-PR, Crystal series,” he bowed his head, “More colloquially known as the Zeo Crystal.” The somber way he said it made it seem like they were supposed to recognize the name, but Trini had no idea what he was talking about.

“Okay…” she prompted him, patience growing shorter, “And that is?”

“An encrypted database, the biggest collection of secrets you will find on this Earth.” Zordon shook his head and cleared his throat. “All of the agency’s information gets uploaded there. Every single bit of it, from the smallest requisition form to the most vital mission reports. Everything. With all the information in there…”

He looked directly at her, and Trini felt a shiver run down her spine at the grave look on his face.

“There’s enough to destabilize entire countries to the point of ruin. Enough to topple nations,” he said grimly, and any other time Trini would have snorted at the dramatic way he was speaking. But seeing that he was serious, Trini raised an incredulous eyebrow.

“So if these are so important, why do _we_ have them?” she gestured between herself and Zack.

“Our enemies have been looking for the Zeo Crystal as long as it has existed. If I were to send the type of security it warrants to retrieve the coins, they will certainly be made aware and then I fear it will all be useless anyway. Given enough time, any security can be circumvented. The only option we have of successfully protecting them is to keep their location _hidden_ ,” he emphasized.

Trini’s feeling of dread started to grow. “Why do you keep saying that?” she asked hesitantly, picking the first thing to focus on, implications of leaks in their organization aside. “‘Our enemies’. Do you know who’s coming for these coins?”

There was silence, and just as Trini opened her mouth to ask again, Zordon spoke.

“We captured this from some security cameras several months ago, around the same time you and the others discovered the coins in the museum basement.”

The holographic projector in the middle of the conference table behind them whirred to life, and then there was the flickering image of a woman dressed in dark clothes hovering above it, long hair up in a ponytail and a sneer on her face.

“Are we supposed to recognize that lady?” Zack asked, turning back to Zordon as he gestured towards the hologram.

“Who is it?” Trini asked, voice low. She had a bad feeling about this, something cloying and heavy coiling in her stomach, and she sincerely hoped her suspicions were wrong. There was only a certain number of people who could actually present enough of a threat to worry Zordon like this, and she didn’t particularly want to meet any of them.

“Agent Martinez?” Zordon prompted solemnly, and Trini had her answer.

“It’s Rita,” she breathed, blood running cold in her veins. Zack shot her a look but held back his questions for the moment, which Trini appreciated.

“This is the first trace of her popping up in months, and I’m afraid that can only mean bad things for us,” Zordon said, “It means she has a plan, and we know what her objective is.”

Alpha silently zoomed in on the hologram, and Trini bit back a gasp.

There in the corner, half-hidden and blurred with motion, was a glint of green clutched in Rita’s hand.

“Think wisely about what you do with this information, agents,” Zordon said gravely. “My team made a mistake, and it cost them their lives, as well as the green coin that Rita has managed to keep all these years. She’s been searching relentlessly for the others ever since.”

Zack held up both hands and stepped forward, looking between them. “Okay, can I – is there a briefing I missed? Some file I was supposed to read? Who’s Rita?”

He looked at her in confusion, and Trini glanced at Zordon to see if he objected to her explaining. He inclined his head, and Trini exhaled. She would have told Zack the truth later anyways, but the fact that Zordon expressly wanted him to know probably wasn’t a good sign.

“Rita Repulsa,” she said shortly, “One of the most powerful operatives the agency’s ever had. Unfortunately for… well, _everybody_ , she went rogue. Threatened she’d be back some day, you know,” she waved a hand around, “Destroy us, destroy the world, etc.”

Zack eyes widened, and Trini ran a hand through her hair. “She was the best,” she said grimly, “and apparently out of her mind by the end. Totally willing and able to carry out all her insane threats.”

“Shit,” Zack said, and Trini grimaced at him.

“Yeah.”

“So what are we going to do about it?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Zordon intoned, and Trini turned to the screen in disbelief.

“Director – ”

“These are your orders, Agent,” he cut her off, “The mission will proceed as planned.” He bowed his head, and Trini was surprised at the marginal change in his voice. “I believe you have the ability to fulfill these requirements,” he said softly, “Now, trust nobody. The future is in your hands, agents.”

Zordon vanished, and Trini kept her gaze on the blank screen as her mind whirled.

“Well shit just got real,” Zack commented after a second of heavy silence, and Trini closed her eyes, tucking her hands up in her sleeves and balling up the ends so she had something to hold.

“Yeah,” she breathed, opening her eyes to look at him. “Yeah, you don’t say.”

“So, what, this Rita’s going to try and steal the coins from us?” Zack asked slowly.

She shook her head. “If Rita’s here, we have to be _careful_. She could be watching at all times, and we can’t make her suspicious. She _can’t_ _know_ we have the coins, because she will kill for them.” 

The more she spoke, the more she realized how terrible of an idea this whole thing was. Sure, they were trained, but they were _children_ compared to Rita, inexperienced children playing keep-away. Not to mention Kimberly, Billy, and Jason, who had no training and no experience, and Trini’s chest tightened.

“Zack, I’m serious.”

He put his hands on her shoulders. “I know, I get it. We got this, okay? We’ll just up our game. Everything’s going to be fine.”

Trini didn’t say anything, trying to keep her breathing steady. She wanted to believe him, really she did, but there was no way Zordon’s whole plan was just _Can’t steal what you can’t see_. That couldn’t be it

“It’ll be okay,” Zack repeated, squeezing Trini’s arm to get her to look at him. “Look, you were chosen for a _reason_. They think you’re good enough to protect the coins, and clearly they’re not going to make a mistake here.”

Trini shook her head again, her mind spinning as she thought of their friends. “But what if I’m not good enough to protect _them_? Like, forget the coins for a minute, the others need to be – ”

She cut herself off, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm her racing heart. “They can’t get caught up in this,” she said firmly, “They don’t deserve it.”

Trini had signed on for this, but the others hadn’t. Kimberly, Billy, and Jason weren’t supposed to be involved in anything near it, they weren’t supposed to be in any danger at all.

“Don't freak out, alright? It won’t happen,” Zack said firmly, meeting her eyes, “Because we’re not going to let it.”

 

 

 

True to form, Trini and Zack began to take their protective detail assignment more seriously. They stayed with the others at all hours of day, followed them around, even went so far as to sleep over. They stayed vigilant, spotting nothing out of the ordinary, but knowing Rita was out there somewhere plotting did nothing to alleviate their worry.

Not for the first time, Trini wondered if it would just be safer to just tell them the truth. It wasn’t a useful line of thought, and she shook herself out of it. She had a mission to complete.

 

 

 

“Okay, enough!” Zack yelled, catching himself with one knee against the mat they had laid out in the training room. “Trini, time out,” he made a cross with his arms and eyed her warily, “Time out, dude.”

Breathing heavily, Trini wiped her sweaty hair away from her forehead and straightened, stepping away from Zack.

“Sorry,” she panted, “Sorry, I’ve been… a little stressed.”

Zack nodded in understanding, watching as she moved off to the side to grab her water bottle. They both silently agreed to call it a day, heading towards the lockers, and Trini blinked when Zack elbowed her gently in the side before going to sit on one of the benches.

“You know, I’ve read your file,” he told her carefully, “You’re like, their favorite agent, because you always follow orders perfectly.”

“So?” Trini rolled her eyes, expecting another jab about her being a goody two shoes who needed to learn how to loosen up.

“Why is this assignment different for you?” he asked instead, standing and starting to unwrap his hands. “Why do you want to go against orders?”

“…I don’t know,” she finally said, dismissing the instinct to lie to him. He was possibly the only person she could always tell the truth around, and she didn’t want to lie unless it was necessary.

“I don’t know, I just…” She averted her eyes and got to work unwrapping her own hands. Zack let her think it over, and it was only when they were both ready to go that she spoke again.

“They deserve to know the truth,” she said finally, knowing that no matter how much she believed it, the agency would never go for it. “All of them.”

Zack brought his hand up to rub at the back of his neck, and he ducked his head before speaking. “Probably.”

Not letting the silence get oppressive, Trini turned to pull her bag out of her locker and slammed it shut, prompting Zack to get moving again too.

Picking up his own bag, he threw his arm over her shoulders and pulled her in for a sideways hug. “Come on, I’m tired of getting my ass kicked. Let’s go get some donuts and hang out like normal people for a bit.”

Trini nodded as they moved towards the door together, and she cuffed Zack in the arm when he tried to shove her into the lockers, finally letting some of the tension bleed out of her shoulders as she let out a laugh.

 

 

 

“Hey, Trini!” Kimberly’s smile was blinding, and Trini had to stop herself from physically taking a step back in surprise.

“Oh, hey Kim,” she said with a small grin, going back to sorting through her bag as she looked for her history textbook. When Kimberly didn’t immediately start talking like she usually did, Trini lifted her head again, surprised at the silence. “Kim?”

Kimberly bit her lip, and then shook her hair out of her face and took a deep breath. “Hey, would you… would you want to go out sometime?”

Trini stilled at the question, eyes widening in shock. The nervous look on Kimberly’s face told her she hadn’t misheard the question, but had _Kimberly_ seriously just asked her out? That was ridiculous, that was impossible, that was… almost everything that Trini wanted, and she hated herself for how her first reaction was to think about how great that would be for their cover. Nobody would question them spending time together if they were dating.

Just the thought of building a relationship like that with Kimberly on a pretense left a bitter taste in Trini’s mouth, and she immediately felt sick. She could never do that.

Clearly interpreting her silence as her being dumbstruck, Kimberly gave her a small smile. “Hey, take your time, think it over. No pressure, alright?”

Trini opened her mouth but stopped herself from speaking at the last moment. What could she possibly say? She had a responsibility, both to the agency and to her friends, and she couldn’t allow herself the luxury of a distraction.

Besides, even if she did reveal the truth, would Kimberly want to date her anymore? She was almost living a lie.

It all seemed so trivial in the face of the threat approaching, but as she watched Kimberly walk away, Trini knew one thing for certain. She had a decision to make.

 

 

She made up her mind as they were all sitting in Krispy Kreme, Kimberly on the other side of the table from her for once. They all deserved to know the truth, and she was going to be the one to tell them, the agency be damned.

Getting up to leave, Trini pressed her lips together and steeled herself as they started moving towards the door. They made it out to the parking lot before she spoke up, and she hoped her voice didn’t sound as shaky as she thought it did.

“Hey, guys, hold up.” Everyone stopped and turned to face her, and she shifted uncomfortably on her feet. “Do you want to come over? My family isn’t home, and it’s a great night for a backyard campfire.”

Zack shot her a warning look, but she ignored it and continued to stare resolutely at the sidewalk, too scared to look at the others.

But she didn’t have to worry, because there was a chorus of easy agreements, and she let her shoulders drop in relief. She would tell them tonight.

 

 

 

A couple hours later, Trini found herself laughing with her friends around the fire pit in her backyard. They had somehow fallen into the cliché of playing truth or dare, and after Zack had been dared to pick truth on his next turn, the mood settled into something more subdued.

“Tell us about yourself,” Jason said, leaning back in his chair, “We should… get to know each other, like really know each other.”

Trini met Zack’s eyes across the fire, both of them ready to protest and deflect the game back to safer territory, but Billy and Kimberly agreed enthusiastically.

Maybe it was something about the calm of the night, or the safety of the fire, but Trini saw Zack slowly relax.

“I uh, I used to live in the Melody Mobile Home Park, but a couple years ago I got some money, moved us into this house on the edge of town. It’s just me and my mom, and my mom?” He shook his head ruefully before tipping his chair backwards onto two legs and yelling out, “My mom is the best!”

Trini found herself smiling, listening intently. Zack never talked about his home life, and she had never asked.

Then the smile slowly slid off of Zack’s face, and he let his chair fall back onto its four legs. “But my mom… she’s sick. Really sick, and we have no one else. Alone I can’t afford her medication, but there’s this… organization, that covers the costs for us, as long as I work for them. And I’m so, so grateful for that, because – she’s actually been getting better!”

He faltered, and Trini’s eyes widened when she realized he was talking about the agency.

“The only thing is… I don’t know if I can trust this organization. They’re – they can be a bit sketchy, and they don’t really tell us the whole truth about anything.” He rubbed the back of his neck before stretching his arms out and shrugging. “But I have to believe they’re good, because otherwise… what does that make me?”

The words struck a chord in Trini, and she stared at him with a sinking heart.

“Anyways, yeah. Trini, truth!” Zack deflected the attention off of him successfully, and seeing the others turn towards her, Trini hurried to swallow her nerves and straighten in her chair. If Zack could be brave here, the least she could do was return the favour. This was the opening she had been waiting for.

The last time she had felt like this was when she had come out to the group a few weeks ago. She had thought that that would be the most terrified she could be, telling that secret, but apparently she had another one to rival it.

“There’s also… something I should tell you guys.” She took a deep breath. “I – I know it sounds ridiculous, but I – ” She struggled to find the words, her attention starting to go in and out of focus as it tended to do whenever she was feeling anxious. She furrowed her brow, doing her best to rein it in, but then she stilled.

“Trini?”

Something was pulling at the edge of her subconscious, some distant bit of intuition nudging at her, and Trini slowly got to her feet, waving a hand to tell the others to stay quiet.

She stepped out of their circle of chairs, moving beyond the cozy light of the fire, and quietly began to approach where the backyard met a line of hedges and trees, the least secure side of the property. Her eyes strained to see through the darkness of the night, and her alarming feelings of unease only increased.

“Wait,” she said, freezing and holding her arms out as she stared at the trees. Shadows shifted and the night breeze blew through the leaves, but something in the air had changed, and Trini’s instincts were starting to scream.

“There’s someone here,” she whispered, creeping forwards. Zack was immediately on his feet, and Trini waved him back too, wordlessly telling him to stay with the others.

Some leaves rustled, and that was the only warning Trini got before she was hit across the face. She gasped, staggering backwards and knocking into one of the lawn chairs, and behind her she could hear the exclamations of distress from her friends. Flipping herself onto her feet, she immediately blocked another punch headed for her face, ducking and spinning to strike back, and the shadowy figure retreated into the darkness of the hedges.

Breathing hard, Trini waited, desperate eyes scanning the boundary line, and when the person didn’t reappear, she scrambled backwards to get to the others clustered together by the fire pit.

They were under attack now, and she only had one mission.

Protect them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My two favourite scenes that actually inspired this fic are coming up in the next chapter yay!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now this is literally the chapter I've been waiting for - I came up with two of the scenes first and then I was like goddamn I have to create an entire au around this

“We have to get to base,” Trini panted, still crouched down as she swiveled her head and scanned the darkness around them. She felt her senses stretching out, taking in the situation and somehow aware of the others even without seeing them, and she was scared. “We’re not safe here.”

The night was now dark and menacing, all sense of calm gone with the unwelcome intrusion. Out of the corner of her eye, Trini could see Kimberly standing forward, almost at the edge of the protective halo of light coming off the fire, while Billy and Jason were by their chairs, Zack beside them with his arm out. Trini could hear him murmuring something as he stepped in front of them, reaching to try and coax Kimberly back closer to the safety of the house as well, but she shook him off, still focused on Trini.

“Kim, get back,” Trini said lowly, voice loud as she dared, but Kimberly didn’t look inclined to listen.

“What – no!” she exclaimed, head whipping back and forth as she tried to understand what was going on, and Trini lunged forward when she saw the shadow reappear on the other side of their loose circle and reach for her, panic gripping her as her heart jumped into her throat. She tackled the figure to the ground, letting out a yell when they flipped her into a lawn chair and then promptly danced out of her reach, but at least it caused Kimberly to take a step back towards the house.

“What is happening?” Jason cried out frantically, whipping his head back and forth, and another surge of panic shot through her, knowing that it was a bad idea for him to draw the attention of the attacker.

The shadow was moving so quickly it was nothing more than a blur, and Trini saw Billy step in front of Jason. The contact was instantaneous, and he fell back with a cry of pain, clutching his arm.

“No,” Trini yelled, “Zack, get them into the house!”

When the attacker tried to get past her and cut them off, she grabbed their shoulders and hauled them backwards, wrestling them away and hoping Zack managed to do what she said. They were too vulnerable out here alone, and the only way they could survive this was with a retreat.

“Trini!” she heard Kimberly yell, and she prayed that Kimberly didn’t choose this time to be her stubborn self and try to interfere. She felt an arm circle her neck, but before it could get her into a proper headlock she leaned into them and then threw her weight forwards, flipping them over her shoulder and onto the ground. It gave her some breathing room, and she took a step back as she watched the person get to their feet.

Her pulse was pounding in her ears, and Trini’s eyes widened as the person she was grappling with was pushed into the circle of warmth cast by the fire, the light finally revealing their identity.

It was Rita Repulsa, _the_ Rita Repulsa, and she didn’t give Trini longer than a moment to process this, grinning wickedly before grabbing her head and throwing her to the ground in a rough motion. Trini immediately rolled to her feet and grabbed for her again, throwing a desperate look over her shoulder to check on the status of the others. It appeared they weren’t making it easy on Zack’s efforts to corral them, and she knew she needed to buy them some more time to get away.

Feeling the press of a sheath against her back, Trini pulled out her knife and slashed at Rita, forcing her to take a step back to get out of her reach. Rita wasn’t fazed, the sadistic grin still on her face as she fell into a ready stance, hands up, and Trini pressed forward, trying to keep her slight advantage.

She still hadn’t landed a single scratch on her, and she wasn’t foolish enough to think that she could beat her – the goal was just to get away. She could still sense the others stumbling over each other behind her, the heavy fumbling sounds of their footsteps cutting through her head like gunfire, and she threw them another desperate glance.

Indecision was clear on Zack’s face as he pushed the others towards the house, and when they reached the porch he ran over, skidding to a stop next to Trini with his eyes hardening. Facing them, Rita slowly lowered her arms to her sides, but neither Trini nor Zack were foolish enough to let their own guards drop.

After a long moment, Rita laughed, the sound chilling Trini right down to the bone, and then she took three steps backwards and melted into the darkness. Not wasting a second, Trini spun around and leaped towards the other three, sensing Zack moving after her.

“Get inside!” she bellowed, grabbing the back of Jason’s shirt and hauling him towards the door, her other hand latching on Kimberly’s arm. Thankfully Kimberly moved willingly this time, darting in front of her to throw the door open, and Trini let her go to hurry Billy inside. Zack was facing the yard, sidestepping towards them and guarding their backs, Trini felt her panic rising as she saw movement in the darkness.

“Zack!” she yelled, and she heaved a haggard sigh of relief when he followed her unspoken order without question, turning and darting inside. He slammed the door shut behind him, pressing his back against it for a moment before turning and stumbling his way backwards, knocking into the others clustered in the hallway, and Trini reflexively reached out to receive his low five and shaky fist bump as he passed her.

“Plan,” he asked hoarsely, and Trini nodded at him, quickly patting his arm before spinning away.

“Kim! Jason!” she called out urgently, and she weaved around the furniture. “Billy! Let’s go!” Slamming her fist onto the corner of the mantle, she set off the panic system and locked down the house. She spared a thought for her family, praying they stayed away for the night as planned, and then pushed the thought out of her mind. She already had enough she had to handle, and she couldn’t afford to split her attention.

Aiming for the same shelf Jason had almost opened a couple days ago, she hit the pressure plate so it disengaged and opened to reveal her secret stash of weapons. She grabbed her sheathed daggers and a handful of throwing knives, tossing Zack his favored collapsible staff, and ignored the wide eyed looks the other three were watching her with, swatting at Jason’s hand when he reached out to touch one of the swords mounted against the wall.

“No. Go, go,” she urged, shoving them towards the other side of the house. Swiping the spare set of keys off the shelf, she led them into the garage at a run, waving them all into her parents’ old sedan and sliding into the drivers seat. She stuck the key into the ignition, and then cursed and reached down to adjust the seat, sliding it close enough that her feet could reach the pedals.

“Zack, above your head, behind that handle is a button that’ll set off the flare sign,” she instructed as she started the car, “It’ll disable any bugs or tracking devices she managed to plant.” Her words were halting, and she threw a look over her shoulder to confirm that everybody was in the car before she turned and peeled out, wincing when she heard the roof of the car scrape against the bottom of the garage door as it was in the process of opening.

She hurriedly pressed the button to shut the door behind them as they careened down the deserted street, and her blood ran cold when she spotted Rita in the rearview mirror, standing still in the middle of road behind them. Her high ponytail was blowing gently in the wind, and Trini swore she saw her lift her hand in a wave.

Trini kept driving.

 

 

 

Frustrated, Trini threw the car into park and jumped out, running her hands through her hair and taking a second to properly outfit herself with the weapons. Distractedly gesturing at the others to follow her, she tucked the last knife up her sleeve and then hastened through the hallway as the hidden garage door to the base slid shut, letting Zack try and field their questions about how they had just driven into the record store and wound up in a cavernous space underground.

Alpha startled when she slammed the door open and all but ran down the stairs, and the others all followed behind her with varying degrees of shock and wonder on their faces.

“Agents, what – ”

“Alpha, get Zordon,” Trini ordered sharply, hurrying to the computer monitors and pulling up the feeds for her house. The patio furniture outside had been upended, but other than that she didn’t see any visible signs of the attack or subsequent fight.

“Trini,” Zack tried to get her attention, but she was preoccupied with flipping through the screens, widening the parameters to search the surrounding neighborhood for any signs of Rita. She frantically switched from camera to camera, and when that provided no additional information, she changed the screens to the recordings to see if Rita had made any mistakes that would give them a hint or an advantage in whatever was coming next.

Out of the corner of her eye, Trini saw Zack go pull out the first aid kit and set it on the conference table, opening it and beckoning the other three to come closer from where they had been drifting around the room. Trini froze, realizing they were injured and sucking in a breath through her nose, and she clenched her hands into fists against the surface of the keyboard. She leaned against the control panel, squeezing her eyes shut as her vision swam, and only the beeping of the button she was holding down drew her out of it.

“Trini, what the hell is going on,” Kimberly stepped forward, jaw clenched with her arms wrapped around herself. Trini’s breath caught when she saw the look on her face, angry and accusatory but also _scared_.

Just as she opened her mouth to respond, the big screen across the room flickered to life, Zordon appearing with an irritated look on his face.

“Agent Martinez?”

Trini hurriedly spun around to face him, inhaling and then marching over. “We were just attacked,” she declared sharply, wanting nothing more than to pretend she was completely unaffected. “It was Rita,” she spit out, clenching her fists tighter to stop them from shaking. Zordon went very still, and then slowly slid his gaze over to Alpha before returning it to Trini.

“What happened?” he asked slowly, and he didn’t react as Trini briefed him. It didn’t take very long, and as he pressed his lips together, and Trini had to fight the urge to go stand next to Kimberly. Her friends – her _friends_ – they could have gotten hurt, they could have _died_ , and all Zordon was doing was staring.

“That’s it,” he intoned, “I can see I put my trust in the wrong place.” Frustration twisted his features, and if it weren’t for the pixelated layer over his face, Trini was sure she would be able to see more of it. “Get me the coins,” he ordered, “All of them. I’ll put the map together and stop Rita myself.”

“Sir,” Trini objected, “You said – ”

“I know what I said,” Zordon snapped, “And yet it would seem that it was an error of judgment.”

“You’re the one who put me in charge in the first place,” Trini said furiously, “ _You’re_ the one who decided that this was the best plan, and it led to _this_.”

“Trini,” Zack whispered urgently, reaching out, but Trini shook him off, “Hey, maybe we should just take a second – ”

Zordon scoffed, and Trini gritted her teeth. She could feel the gazes of the others in the room, burning into the back of her head, and she could feel her mind starting to shake, wavering between her friends and her sense of duty to the mission. Eventually she gave up trying to fight it and lowered her arms.

“Did you know?” Trini asked quietly, balling up her fists as she took a threatening step forward. Her eyes were narrowed in a glare, and she knew if she didn’t reign herself in soon she was going to do something rash.

“Agent Trini?” Alpha said hesitantly, but Trini ignored him.

“Did you know this whole time that these coins were hidden here?” she repeated slowly, moving around the table to get closer to Zordon’s screen. He hesitated, and she continued striding forward until she was right in front of the screen. “Did you?”

“That information was not relevant – ” he began haughtily, and Trini scoffed, burning with anger

“Bullshit.”

“Agent Martinez, I must insist – ”

“Did you _know_ ,” she roared, and she didn’t stop herself from slamming her fist directly into the screen next to the image of his face. She barely felt the pain of the shards of glass cutting into her hand, and she didn’t even get the satisfaction of cutting Zordon’s feed off, because he was still there, the view of his face fractured in the middle but still perfectly functional.

Everything was still as she stood there, chest heaving and knuckles dripping blood, and even Zack was stunned into silence.

“Yes,” Zordon finally answered, voice somewhere between regretful and defiant, and Trini released an angry breath at the word, spinning around and pushing her hair away from her face as she paced haltingly, “Yes, I knew. I was the one that hid them in the mine, years ago.”

Trini stiffened, turning back to him with her face twisted in anger and disbelief. “So you knew exactly what was in Angel Grove, you’re the one who _put them here_ , and you sent _me_ to protect them? You let us keep these coins, knowing how dangerous it would be for us?”

Zordon waited a moment before nodding. “Locating them in the first place was my team’s last mission, and then hiding them was mine, although I never put them together. I never saw the map.” 

Trini could tell his words were meant to be reassuring, but all she could feel was the burning realization that this was the person in charge of the agency, and these were the direct results of his choices.

He didn’t care about them. He didn’t care about the innocent civilians he’d knowingly put in danger, didn’t care about the fact that entrusting these coins to anybody while Rita was hunting them was painting a giant target on their back without them knowing. He was too absorbed with his own mission – he didn’t care.

Trini stayed silent, and then slowly spun on her heel and walked out, leaving behind a cracked screen and the shocked faces of her only friends.

Storming up the stairs, she slammed through the door that led to the Krispy Kreme, glad it was the middle of the night and deserted. Her breath started to come in quick pants as she felt the anxiety edging into her mind, and she clutched at her hair as she tried to get herself under control. Tears started to prick at the corners of her eyes, and she sucked in as much air as she could, pacing in a tight circle.

She was slowly getting herself back under control when the door opened behind her, and she didn’t have to turn around to know it was Zack.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered, “I’m sorry, I’m just all… screwed up because of this stuff with – telling – ” She cut herself off before she said Kimberly’s name, but Zack knew anyways.

“You gonna be okay?”

“I’m just worried,” she shook her head, “It’s no excuse, I’ll apologize to Zordon. And Alpha. And – ” The words died in her throat as she tried to name Kimberly, Billy, and Jason, the words getting stuck before she could get them out.

“They’re worried too, you know. Downstairs,” he reminded her gently, “And scared. I didn’t tell them anything, you’re the lead agent, but I think they deserve to know. And I know you think so too.”

Trini took a few more shaky breaths, scrubbing roughly at her eyes and then giving a jerky nod. “Yeah, I’ll – I’m coming, I’ll do it.”

Zack nodded and left, and a minute later she quietly made her way back down the stairs as well, trying to retain her sense of control and push back the stifling dread before it could corner her into another burgeoning panic attack.

The door was quiet when she pushed it open, and Trini did her best to keep her shoulders from curling in. Clearing her throat to get their attention, she came to a stop in front of the cluster of chairs Kimberly, Billy, and Jason were sitting in, and then started chewing on her lip as she tried to decide where to start.

Kimberly stood and took a careful step closer, a guarded expression on her face and looking like she was stopping herself from reaching out, and Trini grimaced.

“Trini, what’s going on? Where are we? What were you – talking about, with the guy on the screen?” She was leaning forward slightly on her toes, talking low enough that it almost seemed like they were alone even though Jason and Billy were hovering a couple feet behind her, and Trini took a deep breath.

“This is – it’s a secret base.” She shot a halfway pleading look at Zack for support. “ _Our_ – secret base.”

“…A secret base,” Jason repeated with a dumbfounded look on his face, and Kimberly frowned and took a step back, voice growing stronger.

“We deserve an answer.” Her mouth was pressed in a determined line, and Trini had to force the words out.

“You’re right, I know,” she nodded again, more to reassure herself than anything, and then took another deep breath.

“…I’m a spy.”

The statement hung in the air, and Trini’s eyes quickly darted over all of their faces, landing on Kimberly’s last.

“A… a spy,” Kimberly repeated, voice careful. She gave her head a little shake, in a motion almost like she was going to laugh but changed her mind at the last second, and then eyed her incredulously. “You’re serious?”

Trini spread her fingers helplessly, and Kimberly brought her hand up to her face. “I mean, after what we just saw, of course you are.” She gave a hysterical laugh. “Why wouldn’t you be a spy? People attacking us, secret bases, sure.”

Trini ducked her head again, a bitter taste in her mouth. “I was assigned to Angel Grove on reserve, to be ready if anything happened nearby, and then assigned to you guys after we found the coins.” Nobody said anything, and Trini pressed her lips together, her chest clenching painfully. “This,” she spread her arms to gesture around at the high tech room they were standing in. “This is all… at my disposal, I guess. It’s our base.”

“Assigned to us?” Billy asked tremulously, turning her chair back and forth.

She shifted her weight to her back foot and raised her heel off the ground, unable to lift her head and meet their eyes properly. “Surveillance, and then protective detail. The coins we found at the museum actually contain pieces of a map to this super secret database of information that’s hidden somewhere, and the mission was to guard them.”

Billy blinked, an overwhelmed look on his face as he asked, “From who?”

“There’s a rogue agent named Rita Repulsa searching for them, the woman from tonight, and she’ll stop at nothing,” Trini stressed, “It’s not _safe_.” She touched her fingers to the bruise blooming across her cheek and rolled her eyes, muttering, “Obviously.”

There was no response to that, and Trini felt Zack step up to her side, nudging her in the arm in a silent show of support. Trini lifted her head again, opening her mouth to try and explain some more, but Kimberly beat her to it.

“So you’ve been lying since the beginning?” Kimberly’s voice was dangerously calm, and Trini’s heart stuttered.

“No,” she said desperately, dropping her hand, “No, I wasn’t, none of it was – ” She cut herself off and ducked her head again, because of course it had all been a lie. She never would have said a single word to Kimberly, or Billy or Jason or even Zack, if it hadn’t been for this assignment.

She had lied about moving here, and lied about everything she’d done since. She had even lied about her grade in biology, all to further their mission.

“Please, just listen, I – I’m sorry, I – ” Trini’s voice cracked and Kimberly shook her head sharply.

“No,” she muttered lowly, not looking at her, “Don’t.”

It was quiet aside from the intermittent burst of static from the damaged equipment, and Trini slowly pressed her lips together.

“I’d like to go home now, please,” Billy said quietly, keeping his shoulders raised protectively and his bandaged arm cradled against his chest. Jason stepped up to his side, lifting his chin as if ready to fight them on it, and tears pricked at Trini’s eyes. She knew that if Zordon was still on the line, he probably would try and detain them.

That made things worse, but Trini knew she could never do that to them like that.

“I’ll take you,” Zack said quietly, shoulders slumped, and Trini silently fished the keys out of her pocket for him and held them out.

“Take the car,” she muttered, voice halting, “Bring it back tomorrow, I’ll walk home.” She bit her lip and lowered her head, not moving to stop them as they filed into the stairwell.

The door clanged shut behind them, and it was quiet in the room, only the static and whirring of the computer fans to be heard. Trini bit her lip and slowly tucked her hands into her jacket pockets, clenching them into fists. Zack was still standing a step behind her, his presence a silent comfort, and Trini tried to take a deep breath.

“I’m sorry for blowing up like that,” she said mechanically, keeping her head bowed as she addressed Alpha standing in a corner of the room by the destroyed monitor. “I didn’t mean it, and I apologize, to you and to the director.”

“Trini,” Alpha breathed sadly, stepping forward with a sympathetic expression on his face, but Trini took a stumbling step backwards to avoid his reaching hand.

“No, I’m okay,” she said feebly, continuing to back away and shaking her head at Zack, “I’m just – I, I’m fine. I’ll be at home if you need me.” She waited until Zack made his decision and finally turned and left, and she gave them a ten-minute head start before making her way upstairs.

She pushed her way through the doors of Krispy Kreme, and scanning the darkness with tired eyes before making her way out into the night and, for the first time in a while, all alone.

 

 

 

It was even later when Trini woke up in her room, her eyes fluttering as she scrunched up her nose and slowly sensed something off about her surroundings, something uncomfortable nagging at her subconscious.

There was a shadow standing at the foot of her bed, and Trini jerked up, scrambling back against her headboard in panic before her conscious brain even registered it as a person.

Most likely seeing that she was awake, the figure’s movements were smooth as they took a deliberate step forward. The moonlight shining through Trini’s open window revealed Rita Repulsa, standing in Trini’s bedroom, and Trini’s heart stopped.

“Do you know who I am?”

Trini stayed silent, tensing as fear tore through her, but Rita made a satisfied sound, a cross between a pleased hum and a scoff. “You’re better than I expected, you know,” she said casually as she continued to approach. “I didn’t think you would spot me tonight, but you did.”

Feeling unnaturally cold but finally spurred into action, Trini hurried to back away, stumbling as she tried to get her feet on the floor and keep the bed between them. Rita continued her stroll across the room, her hands clasped loosely under her chin, and when Trini’s heel hit the side of her dresser, she knew she was cornered.

Sucking in a breath, she narrowed her eyes and lashed out with a fist, but Rita moved quicker than a person had any right to and batted her hand away, forcing Trini to stumble backwards with her arms up in an ineffective block. It was no use, and in a flash Rita had her by the throat, pinning her against the wall.

“You’re little, but I know your type,” she mused lowly, “You’re a fighter, so angry.”

Trini pressed her lips together, glowering at her and gritting out, “What do you want from me?”

Rita laughed, the sound harsh and grating. “Zordon took an interest in you too, didn’t he,” she taunted, lips curled up in a snarl, “Oversaw your training? Taught you things none of the other recruits ever learned?” Trini jerked her head desperately, straining to get away from the sharp points of the fingernails digging into her skin, and Rita bared her teeth. “That is his system, after all. Now, are you wondering how I know that?”

Still glaring at her, Trini didn’t answer, but Rita wasn’t deterred, only tightening her grip.

“ _I_  was the star once,” she hissed, “ _I_ was the one everyone admired.” Her eyes flashed, and Trini felt herself slowly starting to get lightheaded, her vision beginning to swim. Rita dragged her finger from Trini’s temple down her cheek, making a contemplative noise. “I know how this works. You see, we were on the same team, Zordon and I.”

Trini’s eyes widened even as her fingers scrabbled at Rita’s wrist, trying to get free.

“Oh, did he leave that part out?” Rita simpered, an exaggerated look of fake concern on her face before it grew hard again, “Well, that’s what he does, isn’t it. Lies and cheats and _betrays you!_ ” Her eyes darkened as she spit out the last part, and Trini flinched.

In a second, Rita’s face was composed, back to the terrifyingly sharp expression. “Your team has turned its back on you, hasn’t it? Abandoned you, wanting nothing to do with you,” she singsonged in a mocking voice, crazed look creeping across her face.

“They – they’re not my team,” Trini croaked, struggling to get air into her lungs, “They… never were.” Spots were growing in her vision, and her thrashing grew weaker the longer Rita held her up, her feet kicking uselessly at the air.

Rita only hummed, tightening her grip even further as she tilted her head consideringly. “Should I kill you?” she mused, “I’ve killed operatives before.”

Gasping in her best approximation of a deep breath, Trini didn’t give her a chance to try and twisted forcefully, her foot connecting a vicious kick into Rita’s side as she slammed her elbow forward into the her temple. Rita dropped, releasing her and hitting the ground, and Trini caught herself in a crouch, coughing painfully as she forced herself to stagger to her feet.

For a moment it looked like she had the upper hand, but Rita was quick to get back up, and Trini didn’t waste any time charging forward and pressing her forearm against Rita’s neck.

“No, please, you’re hurting me!” Rita rasped.

Breathing heavily, Trini blinked, taken aback at the words. Unfortunately, Rita didn’t even bother pretending to keep up the charade, going back to her nasty grin in an instant.

“I’m just kidding.”

She shoved her away, hard enough that she slammed into the opposite wall, and Trini heard something crack. Swaying woozily, she couldn’t put up any resistance when Rita grabbed her again.

“Don’t you see, Deedee? We’re alike, you and I,” Rita said casually as she strolled forward, picking her way through the mess their fight was leaving on the floor, and Trini’s hysterical mind wasn’t sure whether or not it was funny that legendary rogue super spy Rita Repulsa got her name wrong.

Trini glared at her, unwilling to back down, and Rita tilted her head to the side, pursing her lips. “How would it sound if I told you I’d spare you?” Rita said, leaning forward to put her face right in front of Trini’s. “All I need to know is…” her hand tightened and her smirk grew before she leaned forward again, “Where is the Zeo Crystal.”

“I don’t… know,” Trini managed to get out hoarsely, her glare defiant.

“Sadly, I believe you,” Rita looked almost disappointed, but she didn’t loosen her grip. “No matter. At dawn, the destruction of Angel Grove begins.”

“…What?” Trini choked, not sure if she’d heard correctly, and Rita smirked. Humming an upbeat tune, she reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a small television remote, wiggling it in Trini’s direction.

“Do you recognize this?” she asked, voice mocking and unsettlingly saccharine, “This is what I’m going to use to blow up the entire town. I’ve been busy, you see, busy planting bombs at all major structural points, calculated for maximum damage. Your precious Angel Grove will _burn_.”

Trini paled, and Rita made a sound that was probably supposed to be a laugh.

“But, in exchange for your life…” Rita ran her finger down Trini’s face again, and Trini made a desperate noise, fruitlessly trying to squirm away. “You will find out where the crystal is, and you will come find me in the museum, where you discovered the coins. Give me the information I seek, and you will live. You have my word.”

Not giving her the opportunity to respond, Rita hummed and looked Trini over before meeting her eyes. “I could teach you,” she told her, voice almost thoughtful, and Trini felt disgust prickle up her spine, revulsion making her want to tear her skin off. “Join me and you will learn things the agency has never even begun to dream of. We can have a little deal, Deedee my friend.”

Her eyes glinted wickedly, and then Trini cried out as pain ripped through her when Rita dragged her hand away, leaving deep gouges in the side of her neck. She fell to the ground, landing roughly on her side, and when Trini opened her eyes it was to see Rita gone, only the curtains blowing gently in the wind coming through the open window.


End file.
